Gazprom has signed a Roadmap for cooperation with Uzbekistan
Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Board, and Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov, Minister of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, held a working meeting on Tuesday, having considered topical and promising issues of cooperation.
At the meeting, Alexey Miller and Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov signed a Roadmap for cooperation in the gas industry, the press service of the Russian company reports.
Last week, on January 18, Gazprom signed a Roadmap for cooperation in the gas industry with Kazakhstan. The document was signed at a meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Board, and Roman Sklyar, First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
As reported, the leaders of Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are discussing the possibility of increasing Russian gas supplies to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, taking into account the growth of domestic consumption.
Since January 1, 2023, Uzbekistan has completely banned the export of liquefied natural gas, and since January 12, the National Ministry of Energy has restricted gas supplies to some large industrial enterprises and gas stations. Since 2021, the Kazakh operator company QazaqGaz has predicted the cessation of exports and a significant shortage of natural gas in the domestic market by 2024.
The idea of the Russia–Kazakhstan–Uzbekistan gas union was proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The existing Central Asia–Center gas pipeline can become the basis for such an initiative.
Turkmenistan, thanks to its significant gas reserves, has managed to create a sovereign energy system and recently announced the construction of the first underground natural gas storage facility, which is seen as a source of problem solving for the countries of the region. In December 2022, an agreement was signed on the supply of natural gas from Turkmenistan to Uzbekistan, which was supposed to cover the gas shortage in the winter period of 2022-2023.
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