Uzbekistan to raise natural gas exports in 2008

By Shamil Baigin

TASHKENT, May 13 (Reuters) - Uzbekistan, a big Central Asian gas exporter, plans to raise shipments by 9 percent in 2008 despite a record-cold winter that hampered output in the opening months of the year, a senior energy official said on Tuesday.

Shavkat Mazhitov, deputy head of the state energy company Uzbekneftegas, said that natural gas output will grow to 16 billion cubic metres this year from 14.7 billion in 2007.

"We had a harsh winter and lost the pace of growth a little bit," he told reporters. "But at the moment we are recouping losses and have achieved better results than planned. ... That's why we will export as much as we had planned."

Uzbekistan, along with Central Asia's top gas exporter Turkmenistan, uses a Soviet-era pipeline network operated by Russian gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM: Quote, Profile, Research) for its exports.

Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as well as Kazakhstan, which acts largely as a transit nation, teamed up earlier this year to start charging Gazprom more for their supplies from next year, seeking to bring prices closer to European levels.

Mazhitov could not name the price for next year's shipments but said Uzbekistan would export a total of 12 billion cubic metres to Russia this year, while the remainder will go to neighbouring nations including Kazakhstan.

Last year Russian shipments were 10.5 billion cubic metres.

Gas production in Uzbekistan will rise to 67.8 billion cubic metres compared to last year's 65.3 billion, Mazhitov said.