Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 16
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
Uzbekistan’s intention to buy oil from Iran, while neighboring Kazakhstan is the biggest oil producer in Central Asia, is explained by competition between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan within the region, Oleg Egorov, an energy expert and chief researcher at the Institute of Economics of Kazakhstan, told Trend.
The statement of Uzbek officials regarding the intention to buy oil from Iran was unexpected for the region, especially given that the issue of supplying oil to Uzbekistan was also raised in Kazakhstan in September, he said.
“It’s not a secret that Uzbekistan doesn’t have big oil reserves,” Egorov noted. “Although there are good neighborly relations between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, there is competition between them, and for this reason Uzbekistan adheres to the policy of diversifying sources of oil supply in order to reduce dependence on supplies from one country.”
He added that Uzbekistan has never bought oil from Kazakhstan in big volumes.