On January 24, a working meeting was held between the Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov and the Board Chairman of Gazprom PJSC Alexey Miller.
At the meeting, Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov and Alexey Miller signed a “roadmap” for cooperation in the gas industry.
The press service of the energy company did not disclose the details of the “roadmap”. The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan is silent. There is even no information that Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov visited the Russian Federation.
Earlier, it became known that on January 18, in St. Petersburg, a meeting was held between First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Roman Sklyar and Chairman of the Board of Gazprom PJSC Alexey Miller, the press service of the Prime Minister reported.
According to them, during the meeting the main issues of bilateral cooperation between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation in the field of natural gas were discussed.
As a result of the negotiations, a “roadmap” was signed, which defines the main areas of interaction between the parties, in particular:
- on the issues of Kazakh gas processing at the Orenburg GPP;
- the possibility of Russian gas supplies to Kazakhstan;
- promising cooperation projects.
If you pay attention to the photos, you can see that the roadmaps were signed in the same office.
At the same time, the authorities of Kazakhstan at least partially disclosed the details of the meeting with the head of Gazprom. For some unknown reason, the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan prefers to remain silent.
Earlier, it was reported that Russia asked Uzbekistan to transfer the gas transportation system to Gazprom and cede the rights to export gas to China. At the same time, according to the results of bilateral negotiations in December, it was possible to lift the conditions that the Russian side had set.
At the end of December 2022, it became known that the authorities of Uzbekistan and Russia were discussing an increase in gas supplies to the domestic market, as consumption increased in the country.
In addition, members of the public actively discussed the so-called “gas union”. Putin said that the issue of creating a “gas union” with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan requires mutual agreement and compromise decisions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that an initiative to form a "tripartite" gas project between Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, rather than a “union”, is currently being discussed.
Uzbek Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said that the country’s authorities would not allow any political conditions to be imposed on the sale and purchase of natural gas.
According to Interfax, the leadership of Uzbekistan, Russia and Kazakhstan is currently discussing the possibility of increasing Russian gas supplies to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, taking into account the growth of domestic consumption and export obligations to China.
This may require the modernization of the gas transmission infrastructure for gas delivery and even the construction of new gas pipelines. Including on the territory of Russia, it will be necessary to invest about 260 billion rubles in the development of gas transportation infrastructure.
After the signing of the “roadmap”, the people of Uzbekistan have questions. In what areas will Uzbekistan and Gazprom cooperate, what are the conditions for cooperation, how much gas will Uzbekistan import, etc. Information also appears on the network that some energy companies in Uzbekistan will be transferred to the trust management of Gazprom.
Based on the above facts, the Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan should disclose the details of the “roadmap”.
