Turkmenistan, for technical reasons caused by frost, has suspended gas exports to Uzbekistan since January 12. The resumption of the supply is expected in the near future, Gazeta.uz reports.
Turkmenistan has suspended the export of natural gas to Uzbekistan through the Daryalyk station. On January 12, Uzbekistan received a telephone message from the State Concern "Turkmengaz" about problems at the gas production enterprises of the concern and the cessation of gas supply through the "Daryalyk" to Uzbekistan.
According to information received from various sources, the reason for the cessation of gas supply is the formation of hydrate in the infield communications of the Galkanysh gas condensate field. This happens in severe frosts and is a force majeure circumstance, experts explained, the portal writes.
In parallel with the shutdown of gas supplies to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan was forced to significantly reduce the supply of natural gas to the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline (TUCC) due to problems that arose.
Uzbekistan has introduced a temporary gas consumption savings regime. Specialists of the two countries are continuously working to eliminate technical issues. Gas supplies from Turkmenistan are expected to be restored in the near future, the sources said.
In December, for the first time, Uzbekistan concluded a direct, without the participation of a third party, short-term gas supply contract with Turkmenistan. The Turkmen side declared its firm commitment to deepening cooperation with Uzbekistan in the field of long-term, direct gas supplies.
On Saturday, January 14, head of the Presidential Administration Sardor Umurzakov supposedly arrived in Ashgabat for talks.
Negotiations with Russia
At the end of November 2022, it became known that Russia offered Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to create a triple gas union. The Russian side stated that this proposal does not imply the supply of gas in exchange for political conditions, but it is about the coordination of commercial interests.
As it became known to Gazeta.uz from various sources, this issue was discussed with Russian partners during a series of bilateral meetings.
Initially, the Russian side proposed to supply natural gas of Russian origin in reverse order, through Kazakhstan via the Central Asia-Center (CAC) pipeline.
The main condition of the Russian side was the transfer of the gas transmission system of Uzbekistan to the ownership of Gazprom at market value. Similar demands were put forward by the National Company "Kazakgaz", which did not agree to such conditions.
The second condition put forward by the Russian side was to cede the rights to export gas to China. That is, Gazprom offered to become a party to the agreement instead of the Uzbek company UzGazTrade.
As a result of bilateral negotiations in December, the conditions set by the Russian side were lifted.
It is planned to hold a series of additional meetings to assess the technical feasibility of gas supplies. However, the scale of the necessary work requires the mobilization of significant amounts of funding. In this regard, the practical possibility of organizing supplies is unlikely, sources say.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
January 16, 2023