"Uzbekistan will not abandon natural gas" - Minister of Energy

Despite plans to increase the share of renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and hydropower in the production of electricity, Uzbekistan "does not abandon natural gas". The Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said about this on November 1 at the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum.

According to him, the reason for this is that the annual population growth in Uzbekistan is almost 1 million people, and the economy is growing by about 6%, which increases energy consumption by at least 10-15%. 

"In the last 6 years, electricity consumption has increased by 40%, and we expect to grow at the same rate until 2030. Naturally, the question arises, how to ensure this? In fact, we are a gas-producing country, we used to be a gas exporter, but in the current conditions, we are forced to import natural gas in order to provide economic sectors and the population," he said. 

Uzbekistan imports gas from Turkmenistan and Russia, but "doesn't stop there". 

"We will not stop there, we intend to develop cooperation for a long time. We will not give up gas despite huge plans to introduce RES, in particular, plans to increase the share of solar and wind energy, create energy storage systems, and work on hydropower. Currently, 75% of electricity is produced using natural gas," said the minister. 

Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said that the share of gas in production will decrease, "but the amount will not change if the increase in electricity consumption is taken into account". In addition, Uzbekistan and Russia will increase cooperation on gas processing in the gas-chemical sector.