During a press tour in Kashkadarya province on August 25, the chairman of Uzbekneftegaz, Bakhodirjon Sidiqov, called the official data on gas production in Uzbekistan as inaccurate.

“At a meeting in Bukhara, the president said one phrase: “The coming winter will be different.” Indeed, the people have a question: “What exactly will be different?”. We see that in the news there are big claims in our direction. “Gas production has fallen. Decreased compared to last year. They change their plan." This is incorrect information. In what sense? We are aware of the current problem, [production] has not fallen. We are aware of the real problem. We have clear measures to combat this problem, ”he said in a Kun.uz story.

According to him, the company's specialists know what tasks they need to solve, as well as the amount of funds needed to achieve the goals.

“The President strictly instructed, based on the situation last winter… Our preparation today: what if there is no opportunity to import gas from a neighboring country? There may be different reasons. The winter that came to us last year also came to neighboring countries,” said the head of Uzbekneftegaz.

Bakhodirjon Sidiqov said that steps had been taken to prevent gas shortages in winter, which last year stood at 15-20 million cubic meters per day.

He also unveiled data on Uzbekistan’s hydrocarbon reserves. According to him, currently there are 296 oil and gas fields in Uzbekistan with a confirmed volume of gas of 1.85 trillion cubic meters and liquid hydrocarbons of 150.3 million tons. Uzbekneftegaz owns 122 fields (of which 35 are mothballed) with 933.2 47 billion cubic meters (BCM) (50.3%) and 53.3 million tons.

According to the Statistics Agency, gas production in Uzbekistan in January-July 2023 was at 27.47 billion cubic meters and decreased by 9.5%, or 2.87 BCM, compared to the same period last year. Against this background, imports increased sharply - during this period, $ 201 million worth of gas was purchased from abroad, which is by 49.1% more than last year.

In April, Minister of Energy Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov noted that the decline in gas production was mainly due to Uzbekneftegaz, since "75-80% of the company's fields have already been depleted." He noted that the gas production trend in Uzbekistan will change upward from the second half of the year, but the figures remain much lower than last year.

In addition, Uzbekneftegaz lowered the forecast for natural gas production for 2023 by 1.8 BCM - from 34.1 to 32.3 BCM. Judging by the schedule presented by the first deputy chief of the company, Bekhzod Usmanov, production at current fields will continue to fall, and in order to maintain production at the level of 34.1 BCM in 2024, it will be necessary to compensate for 4.6 BCM of gas through geological exploration in 2025 year - 7.1 BCM, in 2026 - 9.6 BCM.