TASHKENT (Reuters) – Uzbekistan has signed an import deal with neighbouring Turkmenistan for an extra 1.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas for the winter season, a source in the Uzbek government told Reuters on Tuesday.
Uzbekistan, which itself produces around 52 bcm of natural gas per year, has been importing around 15 million cubic metres of gas daily. This will now be topped by some additional 20 million cubic metres a day to meet the former Soviet state’s gas shortfall over the winter season, the source said.
The deal was signed after a meeting on Dec. 12 in Ashgabat between Turkmenistan’s President Serdar Berdimuhammedov and Sardar Umurzakov, head of the Uzbek Presidential Administration.
Uzbekistan’s government declined to comment.
Uzbek officials said last week that the country had halted gas exports to China due to domestic energy shortages.
(Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Alexander Smith)
