Russia cuts off oil supplies to Uzbekistan
By Kamila Aliyeva
The export volume of Russian oil delivered to Uzbekistan in January-April 2018 amounted to 36,000 tons, according to the materials of the Central Dispatch Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex.
In April, deliveries were not carried out. According to the Central Dispatch Office of the Fuel and Energy Complex, the export schedule for the second quarter does not yet provide for oil supplies to Uzbekistan.
Russia stopped the delivery of oil to Uzbekistan in February, after supplying 24,900 tons in January. In March, supplies resumed and amounted to 11,100 tons.
Recently, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia and Uzbekistan entered the final stage of negotiations on concluding an intergovernmental agreement on the supply of oil.
“The discussion of an intergovernmental agreement on the supply of oil to Uzbekistan is at the final stage,” he said.
In 2017, the export of Russian oil to Uzbekistan amounted to 68,200 tonnes. In particular, in November, 30,000 tons of oil was sent to Uzbekistan, while in December the figure increased making 38,200 tons.
Earlier, the official representative of Transneft, Igor Demin said that it is a question of test deliveries for now.
In late February, Vice President of Transneft Sergey Andronov said that active negotiations are currently underway between Kazakh partners and Uzbekistan to determine the volumes of oil transportation.
In April 2017, during the state visit of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Moscow, a bilateral memorandum on the delivery of 500,000 tonnes of Russian oil to Uzbekistan was signed.
Earlier, Andronov said that Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, Lukoil and Russneft could take part in the delivery of 500,000 tonnes of Russian oil to Uzbekistan.
On November 20, 2017, Kazakh company Kaztransoil began shipping Russian oil to Uzbekistan. Oil is pumped via the KazTransOil pipeline system en route Omsk-Pavlodar-Shymkent-Shagyr oil loading point, from where it is poured into railway tanks and then transported by rail to Uzbekistan.
In Uzbekistan, gasoline production decreased by 26.2 percent, diesel fuel - by 8.3 percent, while imports of hydrocarbons increased 1.3 times in 2010-2016.
In late April 2017, Uzbekistan started construction of a new refinery in Zafarobod district of the country’s Jizzakh region, which is expected to operate using the crude imported from Kazakhstan and Russia.
The refinery has design capacity of processing of five million tons of oil per year, production of 3.7 million tons of car fuel, over 700,000 tonnes of aviation fuel and 300,000 tonnes of associated oil products.
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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
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