Uzbekistan starts buying gas from Gazprom

In the first quarter of 2021, Uzbekistan bought three times more gas from Gazprom/Turkmenistan than it could export to China.

This is reported in the reporting and memorandum of the new issue of Eurobonds of the Russian concern, Interfax reports.

Uzbekistan delivered 3.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Gazprom in 2018, increased supplies to 4.9 billion cubic meters in 2019, and stopped them in 2020. A fresh memorandum confirms that in the first quarter of 2021, Uzbek gas was not supplied to the Russian concern.

Moreover, in 2020, Gazprom began delivering Turkmen gas to Uzbekistan: in 2020, 0.9 billion cubic meters were supplied, and for the first quarter of 2021 – already 1.5 billion cubic meters (there were no supplies for the same period in 2020).

It is noteworthy that in the first quarter of 2021, Uzbekistan bought three times more gas from Gazprom/Turkmenistan than it could export to China (0.54 billion cubic meters).

“The Central Asian countries are developing very rapidly now. This primarily concerns Uzbekistan. And we are seeing a big increase in consumption in this country. Therefore, of course, to one degree or another, gas purchases are reduced, because the state directs gas for its own needs, if we are talking about Uzbekistan,” Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom, Director General of “Gazprom Export” Elena Burmistrova commented on the situation with Uzbek gas in May.

Turkmen gas supplies to the Russian company resumed after a long hiatus in 2019 from 4 billion cubic meters, in 2020 the volume increased to 4.7 billion cubic meters (including gas for Uzbekistan). In the first quarter of 2021, gas purchases in Turkmenistan increased to 2.2 billion cubic meters from 1.3 billion cubic meters a year earlier, the memorandum said.