MOSCOW, June 5 (RIA Novosti) - LUKoil (RTS...

A consortium made up of Uzbekneftegaz, Malaysia"s Petronas, Russia"s LUKoil Overseas Holding Ltd., South Korea"s KNOC and China National Petroleum Corporation, was established in September 2005 to conduct prospecting work in the Uzbek area of the Aral Sea.

LUKoil Vice President Leonid Fedun said energy-hungry China and South Korea would be the main outlets for natural gas from the fields and that a pipeline was to be built under the $280 million project.

Exploration conducted by Uzbekneftegaz proved the Aral Sea holds vast hydrocarbon resources and work has started on two of the eight gas condensate fields discovered there in the last few years.