Uzbekistan has suspended liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports until the end of the year to meet rising domestic demand as the country faces serious energy shortages, the Uzbek emergency ministry press service said on Friday.

The ministry did not name the countries to which the exports have been suspended.

It mainly exports LPG to Tajikistan. According to traders, it supplied around 20,000 tonnes of LPG to the neighbouring country in the first 10 months of the year.

Uzbekistan, which produces around 52 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year, has already halted natural gas exports to China and has been importing it from neighbouring Turkmenistan.

Cold snaps in early December forced the government to shut most natural gas filling stations at night for vehicles, except for public transport, to direct it to households.

This led to huge queues outside filling stations across the country where the majority of car owners use cheap natural gas – methane. Many drivers have turned to the cheapest gasoline – AI-80 – which is still twice as expensive as methane.

State-owned oil and gas company Uzbekneftegaz produces around 700,000 tonnes of LPG annually. It supplied domestic consumers with 27,100 tonnes of LPG from Dec. 1 to Dec. 14, the company said.

The Central Asian nation of 36 million has experienced winter energy shortages for decades due to rapid growth in domestic consumption and a decline in production, turning it from an exporter into an importer, at least during the winter.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov; editing by Jason Neely)