“Earlier it was reported that on January 24, a working meeting took place between the head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller, and the Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan, Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov. The parties discussed current and prospective issues of cooperation. During the meeting, Alexey Miller and Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov signed a “”road map”” for cooperation in the gas industry.

Earlier, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic reported that within the framework of the signed “”road map”” with Gazprom, Uzbekistan considers issues of gas supplies. At the same time, negotiations on transferring the gas transportation system to the Russian company were not conducted.

“”The negotiations and the adopted ‘road map’ are aimed at supplying natural gas to the domestic market in the necessary volumes while fully preserving the property rights to the existing gas transportation system of the Republic of Uzbekistan. In this case, there is no threat to either the gas transportation system or our sovereignty,”” the ministry’s statement said.

The leadership of Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan is discussing the possibility of increasing supplies of Russian gas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, taking into account the growth of domestic consumption and export obligations to China. This may require modernization of the gas transportation infrastructure for gas delivery and even the construction of new gas pipelines. In addition, it will be necessary to invest about 260 billion rubles in the development of the gas transportation infrastructure on the territory of Russia.

Frost and Energy Crisis in Uzbekistan

This winter, Uzbekistan faced a massive energy crisis during extreme cold temperatures. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev criticized officials for negligence in preparing for the autumn-winter period during a recent meeting. According to the authorities, there was a deficit of up to 20 million cubic meters of gas per day during the winter peak demand.

As a result, it was decided to increase imports of gas, electricity, coal, and fuel oil due to the shortage of energy resources amid the severe cold weather in the country. Uzbekistan began importing 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan to meet domestic demand during the winter. However, Turkmenistan suspended gas supplies for technical reasons from January 12-21. Supplies have since been restored.

Uzbekistan can produce about 70 billion cubic meters of gas per year, but over the past few years, production has significantly decreased due to depleted reserves, technological losses, and a lack of an effective system to monitor hydrocarbon supplies. In 2022, gas production in the republic decreased by 4% compared to 2021, to 51.7 billion cubic meters. According to Uzbek officials, the republic could produce 56.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2023.

On January 18, Gazprom signed a “”roadmap”” with Kazakhstan for cooperation in the gas industry. The document outlines the main areas of cooperation between the parties, including the processing of Kazakh gas at the Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, the possibility of supplying Russian gas to Kazakhstan, and prospective collaboration projects.

Source: Interfax.”