The Ministry of Energy of Uzbekistan presented the progress of reforms in the fuel and energy complex and the development of the country’s “green energy” at the International Economic Forum of the CIS member states, held in Moscow on 18 March this year.
First Deputy Minister of Energy Azim Akhmedkhodjaev made a presentation at the MEF CIS 2022. He noted that the energy complex, including the oil and gas industry of Uzbekistan, is currently undergoing a large-scale transformation in order to accelerate the transition to market relations, which are the key to the competitiveness of the industry, its compliance with the best international standards, including environmental ones.
To date, the first stage of reforming the oil and gas sector has been fully completed, during which Uzbekneftegaz was unbundled, which made it possible to significantly reduce unnecessary intermediate links in the company’s management system, to form joint-stock companies based on the field of activity. In particular, Uztransgaz JSC was withdrawn from Uzbekneftegaz JSC, which was defined as a single operator for the purchase of natural gas, Khududgaztaminot JSC was also created to operate gas distribution networks and supply gas to the end consum.
Creating an efficient oil and gas industry is an integral part of “green energy”. A significant reduction in emissions, minimization of losses during gas transportation and other important steps are provided by the modernization of the country’s gas transmission system, improvement of accounting and control of gas consumption.
“Green energy” and reforms in the oil and gas sector are inextricably linked with each other. Thus, Uzbekistan intends to increase the level of generation based on RES to 25% (8GW) by 2026. In turn, renewable energy projects provide an opportunity not only to follow the green agenda that is relevant throughout the world, but also release a significant part of such an important natural resource as gas.
2021 also went down in the history of Uzbekistan as the year of launching the first industrial solar photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 100 MW, which will generate 252 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, which will also save 80 million cubic meters of natural gas and prevent the emission of 160 thousand tons of greenhouse gases into atmosphere.
Today, dozens of large new investment projects in the field of renewable energy are at various stages of implementation. Thus, by April it is planned to launch a solar photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 100 MW in Samarkand region.
Today, the structure of demand for energy resources is changing significantly, in particular, in the transition from hydrocarbon resources to renewable energy sources, the issue of developing hydrogen energy becomes relevant.
Thus, the development of “green energy” is going on comprehensively throughout the entire structure of the country’s fuel and energy complex, gradually bringing the level of decarbonization of the economy of New Uzbekistan closer.
