Uzbekneftegaz has not received any assets or stakes in the private company Sanoat Energetika Guruhi (Saneg) since part of Saneg’s licenses to use oil and gas fields were revoked, company officials said at a press conference on Oct. 27.
“We have not been handed any assets or stakes,” Abrorjon Khudoyberganov, the company’s deputy head for processing.
He said Saneg “is a separate organization” that is not subordinate to Uzbekneftegaz and with which the company has no cooperation in this area. Uzbekneftegaz did not say who is currently managing the fields or whether rights to develop them will be transferred to other companies.
On Oct. 8, State Assets Management Agency director Sokhibjon Muradov announced the revocation of Saneg’s licenses, citing unmet license conditions and a lack of economic development of the subsoil plots. He said the Ministry of Geology is working on measures for their effective use, and that the fields themselves were never transferred into private ownership. He did not say how many licenses were revoked or which fields were affected. Saneg’s website had said the company holds subsoil rights to 103 fields.
In 2019, more than 100 fields were transferred from Uzbekneftegaz’s structure to Jizzakh Petroleum, later renamed Saneg, under a classified government resolution tied to a 2020-2030 program to raise oil output.
The transfer is part of the criminal case against Bakhodirjon Sidikov, former chairman of the Uzbekneftegaz management board, and others. Prosecutors say the assets’ value was understated by about 90 billion soums. Sidikov pleaded not guilty, saying the transfer followed a Cabinet of Ministers resolution adopted before his appointment.
