Gissarneftgaz executives dismissed as state firm uncovers extensive structural neglect and financial scams

The sweeping dismissals were finalized during a performance review meeting led by Abdugani Sanginov, the chairman of the board at Uzbekneftegaz. The state enterprise issued a highly critical evaluation of Gissarneftgaz, accusing its leadership of chronic incompetence and a systemic failure to develop its assigned hydrocarbon resource base effectively.

A technical audit conducted by a specialized government working group revealed deep structural neglect across the joint venture’s production networks. Out of 142 total production wells spread across the company's eight designated fields, only 24 were found to be actively operating. This means that a mere 17% of the total well infrastructure was being utilized, while the remaining 83% sat entirely idle, temporarily suspended, or neglected to the point of looming decommissioning.

This extreme operational paralysis led to severe supply shortfalls, with Gissarneftgaz meeting only 40.5% of its natural gas production targets for the 2025 calendar year. Uzbekneftegaz representatives stated that the shortfall was a direct consequence of a complete lack of a systematic engineering methodology and a glaring absence of basic technical qualifications in reservoir management.

While regular operations collapsed and grass-roots refinery workers went months without receiving their wages, the joint venture's executive leadership focused on illicit self-enrichment. According to internal investigators, the management team allocated massive salaries to themselves and diverted additional corporate funds by placing fictitious personnel, commonly referred to as "ghost employees," onto the official company payroll.

To rectify the crisis, the newly appointed management team has been given strict operational directives. They are required to clear all outstanding staff wage arrears as a matter of immediate priority, conduct a comprehensive technical audit of all production assets, liquidate redundant specialized machinery and unused corporate vehicles to raise immediate liquidity, and draft an emergency corporate turnaround and financial recovery plan.

According to the Unified State Register of Enterprises and Organizations, the Gissarneftgaz joint venture was officially established in May 2005 with an initial charter capital of $36,170,000 to extract crude oil, natural gas, and gas condensate. The corporate entity is currently structured as a partnership between Uzbekneftegaz, which holds a controlling 55% stake, and Switzerland–registered Gas Project Development Central Asia AG, which owns the remaining 45%. The company’s register lists Qahramon Tukhtaev as the current director, succeeding Murodjon Madiev.

The corporate lineage of the minority shareholder has shifted noticeably over the last decade. Swiss corporate records from February 2017 identified Gas Project Development Central Asia AG as an indirect subsidiary of Gazprom International. However, subsequent corporate disclosures in February 2023 confirmed that the Swiss firm had been severed from Russian state structures, with prominent Uzbek entrepreneur Bakhtiyor Fazilov emerging as its ultimate beneficial owner.

Uzbekistan's domestic extraction network comprises 294 active oil and gas fields, with 118 directly operated by Uzbekneftegaz and 176 managed via various international consortia and joint partnerships. The dramatic corporate intervention at Gissarneftgaz follows warnings circulating since April regarding a potential bankruptcy risk, which prompted Sanginov to order an exhaustive financial analysis of all nine of the state enterprise's joint ventures and led to the immediate firing of the head of the investment asset management department.