BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 16. Kazakhstan's QazaqGaz national company and Russia's Gazprom signed an agreement on the transportation of Russian natural gas to Uzbekistan, Trend reports.
According to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy, the agreement was signed during the meeting between the Kazakh delegation and Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which is being held on June 14-17.
Furthermore, the energy ministers of Kazakhstan and Russia extended intergovernmental agreements on the transit of Russian oil with an increase in volumes to 10 million tons by the end of 2033.
During the forum, meetings were held with the heads of Russia's Yakutia, Tomsk, and Novgorod regions, as well as key Russian industry companies such as Rosatom, Gazprom, and InterRAO, where the cooperation in the areas of gas supply, processing, and transportation was discussed.
The Kazakh delegation led by the country's Minister of Energy Almassadam Satkaliyev also included Chairman of the Board of Kazakhstan's Samruk-Kazyna National Welfare Fund Nurlan Zhakupov, representatives of the Ministries of Trade and Integration, Industry and Infrastructure Development, and National Economy.
On January 24, 2023, Uzbekistan's Ministry of Energy and Gazprom signed a road map on the cooperation in the gas industry. Moreover, back in November 2022, Russia proposed to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to create a "gas union".
Uzbekistan's Energy Ministry said at the time that the purpose of this cooperation is to supply gas to the domestic market in the necessary volumes while fully preserving the ownership over the existing gas transportation system of Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, during the extreme cold weather of winter, Uzbekistan faced a severe energy crisis. According to authorities, there is a deficit of up to 20 million cubic meters of gas per day during peak winter demand in the country. In response to the energy resource shortage caused by the harsh weather conditions, the decision was made to intensify the import of gas, electricity, coal, and fuel oil.