Russia has launched oil shipments to Uzbekistan. In 2020, an oil refinery with a capacity of 5 million tonnes will be built in the country. Gazprom is said to be one of the companies taking part in the project.
Transneft launched pumping oil in the direction of Uzbekistan through Kazakhstan via the Omsk-Pavlodar-Shymkent pipeline and further by rail.
The volume of 30,000 tonnes per month is expected to be supplied with a possible increase to 2,000 tonnes per day (or 60,000 tonnes per month).
Uzbekneftegaz said the pumping is seen to be increased to 1 million tonnes in 2018. However, Transneft noted that the technical capacity for pumping in this direction is about 0.5 million tonnes as the rest of the pipeline through Kazakhstan is occupied by Rosneft to deliver oil to China.
Uzbekistan imports oil to fill up its refineries with a total capacity of 11 million tonnes. The country is interested in buying oil from Russia due to cheaper transporting through the pipeline.