State natural gas pipeline company, Uztransgaz plans to use loans from international banks to fund upgrades to the country’s gas pipelines at a cost of $470 million dollars. The upgraded pipelines are intended to handle increased natural gas imports from Russia. The objective is to boost Uzbekistan’s natural gas intake to 32 million cubic meters per day from the current 9 million cubic meters. This plan is in accordance with Decision #92, adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers on February 14th.
Following a Moscow event on October 7th, 2023, the presidents of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia began the process of supplying Uzbekistan with Russian gas through Kazakhstan. The group planned the reversal of the “Central Asia-Center” trunk-line gas network in order to make these deliveries. The network was constructed in the 1960s to transport gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to Russia.
Uzbekistan’s gas trading company, UzGasTrade and Russia’s Gazprom Export signed a two-year commercial contract which outlines the purchases.
