In January-April, Uzbekistan imported $809.5 million worth of gas, the Statistics Agency said in a report. This is 4 times more (in value terms) than in the first half of 2023, when deliveries stood at $200 million.
Year-to-date, Uzbekistan has also exported gas worth $241.4 million, which is 13.3% less than in the same period last year ($278.4 million). In January, the figure was $21 million, in February - $5.7 million, in March - $18.7 million, in April - $6.9 million, in May - $7.6 million.
According to the China General Customs Administration, the imports of Uzbek gas since the beginning of the year topped nearly $235 million, which is 31.5% more than the volume of total gas exports from Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan also supplies gas to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
Gas exports volumes between Uzbekistan and China stat agencies differ by several times. Energy Minister Zhurabek Mirzamakhmudov commented that China took into account the transit of Turkmen gas. According to our calculations, even taking this into account, the statistics may diverge greatly.
The analysis of found that Uzbekistan exported almost $2.7 billion worth of gas since 2020 (including to Kyrgyzstan and partly to Russia). However, according to the Chinese authorities, the volume of of Uzbek gas imports reached $3.23 billion, which is by $538.1 million (19.9%) more than indicated in the data of the Statistics Agency.
According to some sources, in July 2022, one of the private companies in Uzbekistan were granted exclusive rights to export gas. In December 2022, exports from Uzbekistan continued, despite statements by officials about a reduction or suspension of supplies.
Since October 2023, Uzbekistan has been importing gas from Russia through the territory of Kazakhstan. It was reported plans to invest $500 million to modernize the main gas system to increase the volume of gas imports from the Russian Federation.
