Uzbekistan's oil, gas and coal output falls while electricity generation rises

15:363624 min

Uzbekistan produced 27 billion cubic meters of natural gas in January–September 2026, down 16.4% from the same period last year, as declining output at mature fields continued to weigh on domestic extraction. Production of oil, gas condensate and coal also fell, while electricity and diesel output increased.

Photo: Pexels

Uzbekistan's oil, gas and coal output falls while electricity generation rises — Photo: Pexels

The latest figures from the National Statistics Committee show that gas production was 5.3 billion cubic meters lower than the 32.3 billion cubic meters recorded in the first nine months of 2025. The decline has deepened over a longer period: output in January–September 2024 stood at 33.7 billion cubic meters, meaning production has fallen by almost 20% in two years.

September brought a partial monthly recovery. Gas extraction reached about 2.8 billion cubic meters, up 7.7% from August’s 2.6 billion cubic meters. Average daily production rose from 83.9 million to 93.3 million cubic meters. However, September’s output was still 17.6% below the 3.4 billion cubic meters produced in the same month last year.

The figures point to a persistent gap between current production and earlier levels, despite the improvement from August.

At an October 27 press conference, Uzbekneftegaz chief geologist Nodir Muhiddinov attributed the decline partly to the depletion of major fields. More than 80% of the reserves at some large deposits have already been extracted, he said.

Muhiddinov said the natural decline in production at operating fields had reached 12.6 million cubic meters a day since the beginning of the year. Repairs and new wells had helped recover part of the lost output, but around 5 million cubic meters a day remained uncompensated.

Uzbekneftegaz and companies within its group produced about 17 billion cubic meters in the first nine months. The company expects to raise that figure to 22.8 billion cubic meters by the end of the year, compared with 25.2 billion in 2025. That would leave annual production below the presidential instruction issued in January to extract at least 25.4 billion cubic meters in 2026.

The decline was not limited to natural gas. Oil production fell by 1.6% year on year to 482,200 tonnes, while gas condensate output dropped by 14.1% to 729,200 tonnes. Coal extraction decreased by 6.9% to 5.4 million tonnes.

September figures offered some signs of improvement in oil and coal production. Oil output reached 57,200 tonnes, 2.9% higher than a year earlier and 1.6% above August. Coal production rose by about 11% month on month to nearly 1 million tonnes, although it remained around 9% below September 2025.