Uzbek Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov and the head of the Russian Gazprom Alexei Miller signed a roadmap for cooperation in the gas industry on Tuesday, the company’s press service reports.
Details were not disclosed in the message.
A week earlier, Gazprom signed a similar document with Kazakhstan.
According to Interfax, Russia wants to increase the volume of gas supplies to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, taking into account the growth of domestic gas consumption in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and export obligations to China.
This may require modernization of the gas transmission infrastructure and even the construction of new gas pipelines. In particular, it will be necessary to invest about 260 billion rubles for the development of gas transport infrastructure on the territory of Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin also mentioned this.
Russia’s interest in selling gas to Central Asia comes at a time when Europe is turning its back on Russian energy resources amid the Ukraine war. For this purpose, Moscow proposes to establish a tripartite gas alliance with the participation of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.
Earlier, Russia asked to transfer the country’s gas transportation system to Gazprom for gas transmission to Uzbekistan, and it was known that such a request was also made to Kazakhstan. It is also said that Moscow wants to control the export of gas from Central Asia to China.
The Energy Minister of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said that the country will not “give away” its energy networks.
“Based on national interests, negotiations are being conducted on cooperation on the basis of trade and commercial contracts, not handing over our networks to someone else or through other means,” the minister said.
“We will never jeopardize our national interests. Even if we do take the action you are talking about, we will only do so through commercial sales contracts. We will not allow any political conditions to be imposed in return.
If they bring the gas to our border and give it to us at a reasonable price, we will buy it, otherwise not,” Mirzamakhmudov said.
