All previously issued licenses to gas-producing enterprises will be reviewed – Shavkat Mirziyoyev

In his address to the parliament, the President said that the transition to the free market in the energy sector should not be made hastily.

“We should teach people to value energy and not to waste it. We need to develop relevant laws for this purpose.

At the same time, the use of small-scale renewable energy sources should increase dramatically.

For example, if Olmaliq, Bekobad combines and other large enterprises install 1,000-megawatt solar power plants for their needs in Tashkent region, 2.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity will be produced per year. This will be enough to cover 30% of the electricity consumption needs in the region and help save 500 million cubic meters of gas.

Similarly, other regions should make their calculations and determine their specific plans for the coming year.

At the same time, every district and city mayor of the republic must implement 5-10 megawatt renewable energy projects in households and enterprises in their territory,” said Mirziyoyev.

In order to increase gas reserves, a ten-year program on geological exploration is adopted.

“We will introduce new technologies and start gas production in deep layers for the first time. We never went below 6 kilometers. Now we will go deeper, explore and produce gas. But it is expensive to mine. So, we will attract foreign investors to prospect deep layers of Ustyurt.

All previously issued licenses to gas-producing enterprises will be reviewed, appropriate measures will be taken against inefficient ones,” Shavkat Mirziyoyev said.