BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 3
By Ilkin Seyfaddini – Trend:
Uzbekistan reduced natural gas exports by 9.4 percent in 2019 to 13.4 billion cubic meters, compared to 2018, Trend reports via Uzbek media.
After several years, Russia again became the leading buyer of Uzbekistan's natural gas, accounting for 45.1 percent of natural gas purchases in 2019. In 2018, Russia stood behind China (51.9 percent, dropped to 37.2 percent in 2019) with 26.7 percent, the report said.
In particular, Russia increased natural gas import from Uzbekistan in physical volume by 48 percent up to 6.7 billion cubic meters, China - reduced by 35.1 percent up to 5.1 billion cubic meters.
The weighted average price of Uzbek gas exported to Russia increased from $142.02 per thousand cubic meters in 2018 to $145.76 per thousand cubic meters in 2019.
But at the highest price in Uzbekistan, natural gas was purchased last year by Kazakhstan, which closes the three largest purchasers of gas - $198.2 per thousand cubic meters ($ 184.45 in 2018), while reducing its imports in physical terms by 23.8 percent to 2.2 billion cubic meters.
In much smaller volumes, Uzbekistan exports natural gas to Tajikistan, to which supplies resumed in April 2018 after six years of interruption - 140 million cubic meters (18.7 percent growth) and Kyrgyzstan - 36.2 million cubic meters (0.2 percent growth).
Natural gas production in Uzbekistan is carried out by Uzneftegazdobycha JSC and its structural units, Russian Lukoil and Gazprom in the form of joint ventures and subsidiaries under the production sharing agreement, the US Epsilon Development Company and Epsilon Asia Limited (Hong Kong) and other companies.
Proved natural gas reserves in Uzbekistan total 1.1 trillion cubic meters and 5 trillion cubic meters. Uzbekistan's oil and gas industry currently produces up to 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.
Earlier it was reported that the production of natural gas in Uzbekistan decreased by 1.6 percent compared to last year and amounted to 59.5 billion cubic meters.
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