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Energy

Uzbekistan's gas fields gave 15% less in seven months and its power plants gave 6.4% more

The National Statistics Committee's release of 4 September puts January to July gas output at 21.6 billion cubic metres, 3.8 billion below last year, and electricity at 52.5 billion kWh, up 6.4%. Sun, wind and imports stand between the two numbers: solar and wind made 6 billion kWh in the first half, a quarter more than a year earlier, and seven months of gas imports cost $1.01 billion, up 8.2%.

By CAW Editorial7 September 2026
Uzbekistan's gas fields gave 15% less in seven months and its power plants gave 6.4% more

The release, as Gazeta.uz carried it on Friday at 13:24, is a column of minus signs with three exceptions. Gas condensate fell 15% to 567,500 tonnes. Oil fell 2.7%. Coal fell 9.5% to about 3.5 million tonnes. Against that, electricity rose to 52.5 billion kWh from 49.34 billion, petrol output rose 8.9% to 731,900 tonnes and diesel 1.4% to 683,400. The committee gives no causes.

Less gas came out of the ground, and more electricity came out of the plants. Part of the answer is in the Ministry of Energy's half-year count: solar stations produced 3.8 billion kWh and wind farms 2.2 billion between January and June, 6 billion together and 24.3% more than in the first half of 2025, with hydro adding 4.1 billion. The ministry values that at 2.6 billion cubic metres of gas not burned. Over seven months the statistics committee counts 3.8 billion cubic metres not produced. The windows differ, so the two figures do not net; they share an order of magnitude, and the direction is the one the ministry wants.

The other part is bought. Seven months of natural gas imports from Russia and Turkmenistan cost $1.01 billion, 8.2% more than a year earlier, by the same committee's trade data, published the same day. The report carries no volumes. Last year's full bill was $1.66 billion. CAW's ledger of 28 August put seven months of imports at four times exports by value.

Less gas came out of the ground, and more electricity came out of the plants.

The refineries tell the story from the other end. Seven months of petrol and diesel, 1.42 million tonnes, exceed the country's own oil and condensate, 368,700 and 567,500 tonnes, 936,200 together, by half. The release does not say what fed the difference. Uzbekistan's refineries take imported crude as well as their own, and its GTL plant makes diesel from gas; the table splits neither. Petrol output grew 8.9% in a year when Russia's export bans have set the region's fuel prices.

What changes next is seasonal. The report's own gloss, in the RIA text 1prime carried, is that the gas is bought to cover the republic's shortfall in autumn and winter. That buying season starts in October. The price at which the winter gas arrives is not in any release.

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