On January 8 Uzbek authorities imposed temporary restrictions on methane filling stations for the second time in a month. Decreased pressure in the country’s gas pipelines necessitated the restrictions, which will primarily affect private vehicles.
Most cars in Uzbekistan use CNG – compressed natural gas, mainly composed to methane.
Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Energy, in a January 7 statement, said that starting January 8 methane filling stations would restrict their operating hours to 10 am to 4 pm, rather than the usual 24-hour availability.
In the statement, shared widely via Telegram, the ministry said the measure was necessary due to a decrease in pressure in the main gas pipelines and would only be temporary. The ministry stressed that the restriction on methane filling stations was needed in order to ensure uninterrupted supplies for public transportation and facilities.
Natural gas is Uzbekistan’s largest energy source. According to 2023 data, natural gas was the largest total source of energy in Uzbekistan, accounting for 79 percent of total energy supply; including 76 percent of all electricity generation.
It’s also a resource Uzbekistan produces and exports. In 2025, Uzbekistan exported natural gas worth more than $624 million in the January-November period, primarily to China. In that same period, however, Uzbekistan imported more than $1.5 billion worth of natural gas, with what Uzbek media characterized as a “sharp increase” in November 2025.
While Uzbekistan was once a net exporter of natural gas, since 2020 the balance has shifted. According to International Energy Agency data, in 2020 Uzbekistan became a net importer of natural gas by 19,333 terajoules (TJ) or 0.019333 exajoules. By 2023 that figure had ballooned to 241,191 TJ (0.241191 exajoules).
In December 2022, Uzbekistan signed a contract with Turkmenistan to import natural gas and cover a winter shortfall. The following August, the two sides signed another short-term contract, increasing the volume, and aimed to come to a longer-term agreement. In a December 2024 phone call, the Uzbek and Turkmen presidents agreed to a further increase. Since 2023, Uzbekistan has also imported gas from Russia, via Kazakhstan.
These deals underscore a critical problem: domestic demand in Uzbekistan has outstripped domestic production. According to Energy Institute’s Statistic Review of World Energy, in 2024 Uzbekistan produced 1.52 exajoules of natural gas; consumption rose to 2.0 exajoules that year.
The situation is further complicated by contractual obligations to export gas, largely to China. Authorities say exports are seasonal – meaning that in winter when energy demand spikes at home, Uzbekistan is not at that time exporting natural gas.
On December 11, 2025 the Uzbek Ministry of Energy imposed restrictions on methane filling stations, pointing to a malfunction in the gas transmission system of a “neighboring state.” Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov said at the time that a technical failure in that unnamed neighboring state had resulted in a gas shortfall of 6 million cubic meters.
Uzbek media suggested that the country in question was Turkmenistan, given past disruptions.
The restrictions were lifted on December 30. But a little more than a week later, the restrictions were reintroduced.
Uzbek authorities have been communicative and proactive, heading off a potential crisis by restricting methane filling stations before a significant problem arises – such as the stoppage of a thermal power plant’s work in the middle of winter. But the repeated imposition of temporary restrictions serves to illustrate the larger strategic problem: Uzbekistan consumes more energy than it currently produces and imports are not reliable enough to cover the shortfall.
Uzbek authorities have looked to the construction of nuclear power plants to help solve this energy riddle. But those projects will take years.
In September 2025, Uzbekistan and Russia expanded existing plans to construct small modular nuclear reactors, settling on two high-capacity units based on the VVER-1000 and two smaller units with RITM-200N reactors. The larger reactors will have the capacity to generate around 1,000 MW each; the smaller reactors will have a generation capacity of 55 MW each.
At the time, the director of the Uzbek Agency for Nuclear Energy (Uzatom) Azim Akhmedkhadjaev, said that the first unit at the large nuclear power plant would go into operation in 2033, with the second up and running by 2035.
Uzbekistan plans to commission the first of the two smaller nuclear power plants in 2029.
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