Uzbekneftegaz anticipates slight slowdown in gas production in 2023

Uzbekneftegaz reduced the forecast of natural gas production for 2023 from 34.1 billion cubic meters to 32.3 billion cubic meters. Behzod Usmanov, the first deputy chairman of the board for transformations, informed Gazeta.uz about this.

“The production forecast is slightly lower. About 1.8 billion cubic meters. This happened due to the fact that our forecasts for the reduction of reserves in the mines did not come true. They are shrinking rapidly. The measures we are taking to increase production are not enough to keep the production level at 34.1 billion cubic meters,” Behzod Usmanov said.

According to him, more investment is needed to conduct exploration and open new mines.

Behzod Usmanov announced the forecast for gas production until 2026 in November 2022 at the Tashkent Economic Forum. At that time, he said that in 2023, it is planned to extract 34.1 billion cubic meters of gas, including 1.8 billion cubic meters due to geological exploration. But in February, the forecast was reduced to 32.8 billion cubic meters, and now to 32.3 billion cubic meters.

According to the graph, natural production from current fields will continue to decline, as 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas must be covered by exploration to maintain production at 34.1 billion cubic meters in 2024. It is indicated that these numbers will be 7.1 billion cubic meters in 2025, and 9.6 billion cubic meters in 2026.

To date, almost 50% of all oil and gas fields (118 out of 290) belong to Uzbekneftegaz. It should be recalled that production last year was 51.66 billion cubic meters, which is 4% or 2.1 billion cubic meters less than in 2021 (53.8 billion). Uzbekneftegaz made 32.2 billion cubic meters (forecast 34 billion cubic meters) or 62.3% of production, making the company the largest gas producer in Uzbekistan.

In addition, in the first half of the year, gas production in Uzbekistan decreased by 9.6% or 2.51 billion cubic meters compared to the same period of last year and amounted to 23.56 billion cubic meters.

Commenting on the sharp decline in gas production in Uzbekistan, Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said earlier that the dynamics will change in a positive direction from the second half of this year. According to him, the decrease in gas production was mainly at the expense of Uzbekneftegaz, because “75-80% of the company’s fields have been mastered”.