Energy

‘Russia wanted to take over gas transportation system from Uzbekistan’ thesis

The Uzbek media claimed that Russia offered Uzbekistan to transfer the gas transportation system in the country to Gazprom.

In the news on Gazeta.uz news site, which broadcasts in Uzbek, the details of Russia’s proposal for the establishment of the Tripartite Gas Union with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan last November, it was brought that the Russian and Uzbek sides had a bilateral meeting several times in this regard.

In the news, the Russian side offered to supply Russian gas to Uzbekistan through the “Central Asia-Central” natural gas pipeline passing through Kazakhstan, and in return, Russia took ownership of the country’s gas transportation system from Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan’s gas supply to China. It was claimed that he wanted his export rights to be transferred to Gazprom.

The article states that “the basic rule of the Russian side is to transfer the gas transportation system of Uzbekistan to Gazprom’s ownership at the market price”, while a similar request was made to Kazakgaz, the gas transportation company of Kazakhstan, but the Kazakh company did not accept these rules. was brought into language that he did not.

The second condition put forward by the Russian side was the transfer of Uzbekistan’s gas export rights to China.

“It was possible to remove Russia’s rules in bilateral negotiations”

As a result of the bilateral negotiations held in the middle of the parties last month, it was reported that it was possible to remove Russia’s conditions in question, and that new negotiations were planned to evaluate the technical possibilities of gas shipment from Russia to Uzbekistan, but due to the need for a large financing for this, the shipment in question was organized. was noted to be very unlikely.

Natural gas problem emerged in Uzbekistan, where domestic consumption increased following the cooling of the weather. In November 2022, the Russian side made an offer to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and proposed the creation of the Tripartite Gas Union, which also includes natural gas supply to the Uzbek side.

Upon this, the Minister of Power of Uzbekistan, Corabek Mirzamahmudov, declared that natural gas shipments from Russia to Uzbekistan could not be made as a union, but on the basis of direct bilateral commercial agreements.