A Day After Halting Turkmen Gas, Russian Major Confirms It Will Up Uzbek Gas Intake

CEO of Russian giant Gazprom Alexey Miller said yesterday that the company's gas relationship with Uzbekistan will continue, a day after Turkmenistan announced that the company had halted import of Turkmen gas.

“Uzbekistan is our reliable partner in the gas industry and we will continue developing our mutually beneficial cooperation," Miller told journalists. "And, naturally, the volume of Uzbek gas purchase will grow this year."

In 2013 Gazprom purchased about 4 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Uzbek gas, though that figure decreased to 1 bcm in 2014.

The Gazprom CEO also confirmed that, at the end of December 2015, an agreement was reached to increase the company's purchase of Uzbek gas. “We highly evaluate results of the talks and agreements reached with our Uzbek friends.”

Though Miller did not indicate how much gas Gazprom would purchase from Uzbekistan, RadioFreeEurope says sources within Gazprom expect the company to purchase at least 3.1 bcm of gas from the country.

Gazprom had not responded to a question from Natural Gas Europe about the quantity of gas it will purchase from Uzbekistan at the time this article went to press.

The increase in gas imports was announced one day after it was revealed that Gazprom has stopped imports from Turkmenistan. On Monday, Turkmenistan announced that Gazprom will not purchase any gas from the country in 2016.