Gazprom supplied 1.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen natural gas to Uzbekistan in the first quarter of 2021, the Moscow-based Interfax news agency reported on Monday with reference to the reports and memorandum of the new issue of Eurobonds of the Russian company.
Uzbekistan has turned from a seller to a buyer of Gazprom's gas, according to the report. Uzbekistan supplied Gazprom with 3.8 bcm of natural gas in 2018 and in 2019, increased supplies to 4.9 bcm, stopping the supplies in 2020. The company’s memorandum confirms that in the first quarter of 2021, Gazprom did not receive any Uzbek gas.
In 2020, Gazprom began delivering Turkmen gas to Uzbekistan. The company 0.9 bcm of Turkmen gas to Uzbekistan in 2020, and 1.5 bcm in the January-March of 2021, according to the memorandum.
Interfax notes that in the first quarter of 2021, Uzbekistan bought three times more Turkmen gas from Gazprom than it exported to China (0.54 bcm).
“The Central Asian countries are developing very rapidly now. First of all, this concerns Uzbekistan. And we are seeing a big increase in consumption in this country. Therefore, of course, to one degree or another, gas purchases are reduced, because the state directs gas for its own needs, if we are talking about Uzbekistan,” Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom, General Director of Gazprom Export Elena Burmistrova commented on the situation with Uzbek gas in May.
The supply of Turkmen gas to the Russian company resumed in 2019 with 4 bcm. In 2020 the volume increased to 4.7 bcm (including gas for Uzbekistan). In the first quarter of 2021, Gazprom increased its purchase of natural gas from Turkmenistan to 2.2 bcm from 1.3 bcm a year earlier.
