The Minister of Energy of Uzbekistan,Alisher Sultanov, in an interview with “America Ovozi” (Voice of America), spoke about the careful attitude to energy resources in the country and their efficient use.
In his opinion, the current volumes of gas in the country are sufficient to supply three Uzbekistan.
Sultanov made an interesting comparison: Turkey with an 85 million population, as well as with developed production (GDP at the end of 2020 $ 688.6 billion) and Uzbekistan with a 33 million population (GDP at the end of 2020 $ 56.9 billion) consume 45 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Therefore, the minister stressed that the current volumes of blue fuel are sufficient to provide the country with gas.
“To this end, ‘energy efficiency’ should become our main slogan in the coming years. The most important reform is energy saving; 70% of enterprises have installed equipment that does not meet energy efficiency requirements. If we modernize, install new equipment, we will be able to reduce energy consumption by up to 2-3 times,” he said.
According to the State Statistics Committee, gas production in Uzbekistan in 2020 decreased by 10.8 billion cubic meters, or 17.8%, compared to the previous year – from 60.5 billion to 49.7 billion cubic meters. In addition, last year Uzbekistan imported gas worth $ 50.4 million, which is 237 times more compared to 2019. Exports in value terms fell 4.7 times.
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