Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Uzbekistan is implementing a project to expand the capacity of the largest underground gas storage (UGS) in Gazli. It is expected that the UGS capacity will reach 10 billion cubic meters of gas.

The Uzbek-Russian joint venture Gazli Gas Storage is implementing this project. The founders of the joint venture are Uztransgaz and the Russian company Forus.

Muhammad Saidazimov, chief engineer of Gazli Gas Storage, noted that at the first stage (from 2020 to 2025), the capacity of the Gazli gas storage will be increased from the current 3 billion to 6 billion cubic meters.

According to him, at the second stage (from 2025) the UGS capacity will reach 10 billion cubic meters of gas.

The total cost of the first stage of the project is more than US$550 million, of which about US$270 million is foreign direct investment.

This year, Gazli Gas Storage plans to carry out additional exploration work at the Gazli field to identify new sources of energy carriers - gas and oil.