President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held another meeting on April 14 dedicated to problems in the oil and gas sector. This is the sixth discussion in this format since the beginning of the year, with previous meetings held on January 12 and 30, February 23, and March 10 and 25. The head of state reviewed the results of the state company "Uzbekneftegaz" for the first quarter, tasks for the second quarter, as well as the dynamics of production and financial indicators during the meeting.

First Deputy Chairman of the Board of "Uzbekneftegaz" Sukhrob Khamroyev disclosed key indicators for the reporting period in an interview with the "Uzbekistan 24" TV channel. According to him, industrial production increased by 6% above plan, company revenues by 10%, investment indicators by 60%, and export volume by 30%. Financial recovery of the company also showed positive dynamics: since the beginning of the year, accounts receivable have been reduced by 1.3 trillion soums, while "Uzbekneftegaz" and organizations within its system transferred 1.9 trillion soums in taxes and other mandatory payments to the state budget.

However, serious challenges persist in the oil and gas sector. Sukhrob Khamroyev reported that as a result of geological exploration and drilling work carried out in the first quarter, additional reserves of 2 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 thousand tons of liquid hydrocarbons were created, with plans to create 5 billion cubic meters of gas reserves and increase liquid hydrocarbon reserves to 100 thousand tons in the second quarter. At the same time, gas production volumes in the country have significantly declined: if production was 53.8 billion cubic meters in 2021, by the end of 2025 it fell to 42.3 billion cubic meters, representing a 21.3% decrease (-11.5 billion cubic meters).

In February of this year, gas production decreased from 3.4 billion to 3.2 billion cubic meters, and compared to the same period last year, the indicator actually dropped from 3.5 billion to 3.2 billion cubic meters. The decline is also evident in average daily figures: in February last year, 125 million cubic meters of gas were produced per day, while this year the figure fell to 114 million (in January it was 119 million cubic meters). "Uzbekneftegaz" produced 25.2 billion cubic meters of gas by the end of last year, below forecasts, with plans to maintain stable production volumes in 2026-2027.

Earlier, the newspaper highlighted discrepancies in official data on natural gas production. The industrial production report noted that by the end of 2025, 42.3 billion cubic meters of gas were produced in the country, which is 1 billion cubic meters or 2.4% more than in 2024 (41.3 billion cubic meters). However, preliminary statistics published for 2024 indicated gas production volume as 44.6 billion cubic meters. As a result, the difference between various data sets amounted to 3.3 billion cubic meters, or about 8% of annual production volume—equivalent to nearly a month's worth of gas production, raising concerns about data reliability.

Source: www.gazeta.uz