Uzbekistan imported $151.2 million worth of gas in March 2023, which is more than half of the imports of this raw material for the whole of 2022. The indicator rose sharply against the backdrop of falling domestic gas production. Deliveries of coal, oil and oil products have also increased, according to the Gazeta.ru portal.
In the first quarter of 2023, Uzbekistan sharply increased the import of gas, coal, oil and oil products, according to the data of the Statistics Agency under the President of Uzbekistan.
During this time, gas was imported for $152.9 million, but almost the entire volume of supplies fell on March - $151.2 million. In value (not physical) terms, this is 2.6 times more than in January-March 2022, and also slightly more than half of the import of this raw material for the entire last year ($281.9 million).
Gas exports in January 2023 amounted to $3.7 million, in February - $3.7 million, in March - $20.4 million. At the same time, according to Chinese customs statistics, Uzbekistan did not export gas to China. Most likely, fuel supplies were carried out to neighboring countries, including Kyrgyzstan.
In January-March, Uzbekistan imported coal for $45.2 million (in January - $13.2 million, in February - $16 million, in March - $16 million), which is 61.7% more than in the first quarter of 2022.
Deliveries of oil and oil products increased by 43.3% to $510 million (in January - $135.1 million, in February - $152.5 million, in March - $222.4 million).
In January, the Statistics Agency of Uzbekistan did not publish data on imports and exports of electricity. In February-March, Uzbekistan imported electricity worth $34.4 million and exported for $18.9 million.
Thus, Uzbekistan spent $742.5 million on the import of these energy resources, which is almost 2 times more than in the first quarter of 2022.
Growth in imports of gas, electricity and coal occurs against the backdrop of a decline in their domestic production. In the first quarter of 2023, gas production in Uzbekistan fell by 9.6% compared to the same period in 2022, in March the reduction was 12.9%. The volume of electricity production for the three months of 2023 decreased by 5%. Heat and coal production also fell.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
April 24, 2023