Gas Shortages in Energy-Rich Uzbekistan

Although their country is a major producer and exporter of natural gas, residents of many parts of Uzbekistan are experiencing shortages of the fuel as winter approaches.

Gas supplies to homes, businesses and state institutions across the country began being cut in early November.

In the centrally-located Syrdarya region, dozens of residents tried to invade the provincial government offices in Gulistan to press their demand for the gas to be switched back on. The protesters were dispersed by police.

According to a schoolteacher who took part in the protest, "The temperature in our homes is sub-zero, but they won’t turn on the [centralised] heating. The electricity comes on for just four hours a day, and we immediately switch on electric stoves to warm ourselves a little."

Surat Ikramov, head of the Initiative Group of Human Rights Defenders, said his organisation had received hundreds of complaints about the fuel shortages.

"Even schools and orphanages aren’t getting fuel," he said. "Our activists report that the entire densely populated region of the Fergana Valley has had its gas supply cut off. Schools in the Altyaryk, Rishton, Buvaida and Baghdad districts [of Fergana region] are being heated with firewood, and the hospitals are overcrowded with children with cold-related ailments."

Ikramov said the population was growing restive because of fuel and power cuts.

Jora Murodov, an activist in the southern Kashkadarya region, said the main town, Karshi, was being affected by rolling cuts in the gas supply.

"Officials come on local TV and urge people to be patient and to stockpile firewood, as it’s going to be a cold winter," Muradov said. “It’s as if as if they’re having a laugh at people’s expense.”

Dilshod Hamraev, who owns a small bakery in the Gallaoral district of Jizak region, said his gas was cut off following government instructions that private businesses should switch to coal and firewood. Hamraev said there was still gas flowing through the mains pipes, but businesses like his were being warned they would be fined between 7,500 and 25,000 soms – up to 10,000 US dollars – if they tried to use it.

Mansur Ibrahimov of Chirchik, a town close to the capital Tashkent, said winter gas cuts were common, but they had started unusually early this winter.

"Previously, the gas cuts began in the first days of January and lasted until March, but this year it started in October," he said. "Things clearly aren’t going too well."

Erkin Haidarov, a spokesman for Uztransgaz, the national gas distributor, denied there was any shortage.

"Gas is being supplied in line with the schedule and planned volumes," he said. "There’s some work under way to fix problems in the gas and heating systems, and when this is going on, brief outages in the supply are possible."

However, another gas official, who asked to remain anonymous, said there was a shortage of fuel, and instructions had been issued to economise. People should prepare for “a cold winter without heating", he warned.

With no gas, and no central heating from the urban systems fed by local power stations – themselves often gas-fired – residents are turning to solid fuels. But the prices of these are going up. Coal now costs 400,000 soms a ton, which is enough to heat a house for 20 or 25 days. At 150 dollars, that is equivalent to the average monthly wage in many parts of Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan produces about 60 billion cubic metres of natural gas a year, enough to export to other Central Asian states and Russia and – in theory – meet local demand.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.