Uzbekistan has imported about 300 million cubic meters of gas from Russia. The data comes from the Minister of Energy Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov’s speech announcing this at the XVI Verona Eurasian Economic Forum in Samarkand, Spot reports.
On October 7, Uzbekistan began importing gas from Russia through Kazakhstan to cover part of the fuel shortage in the republic during the fall-winter period. The gas purchase contract is signed for a duration of two years. The procurement volume is approximately 2.8 billion cubic meters per year, equating to nine million cubic meters per day.
However, the supplies are moving ahead of schedule. With the approved supplies (nine million cubic meters per day), it would take 33 days to reach 300 million cubic meters.
The head of the Ministry of Energy yet again declined to disclose the price of gas imported from Russia and Turkmenistan, citing the confidentiality policy as the reason. He also abstained from sharing the Ministry’s forecasts on the volume of gas exports to China for this year and the following year.
This year Uzbekistan imported 1 million tons of oil and oil products, which is slightly more than in 2022, noted Mr. Mirzamakhmudov. In the future, the country plans to increase oil imports to meet the needs of its growing economy.
“Yes, we signed during a recent visit (to Russia). No volumes were specified there, the key principle is the issue of supplies. It is important that there are no restrictions on supplies,” he commented on the signing of an intergovernmental oil supplies agreement with Russia.
As a reminder, in January-September Uzbekistan imported more gas in value terms than it exported ($487.9 million vs. $411.7 million). In September alone, it supplied gas from Turkmenistan worth $286.1 million, which is a 40% increase compared to the previous eight months.
