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A new oil power is born in Central Asia
The republic has already entered the first fifty countries in the reserves of black gold.
Central Asia, accustomed to the dominance of Kazakhstan in the oil sector, is now observing the emergence of a new, ambitious player. Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan have concluded a historical agreement capable of marking a new milestone in cooperation between two Turkic -speaking countries in another area. Socar, together with the Government of Uzbekistan, invests $ 2 billion in reconnaissance and the development of a Ustyurt oil field, Inbusiness.kz reports.
It is worth noting that today the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic of SOCAR (acronym from State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic) is an international brand known in many countries of the world.
Its main activity covers the production, processing and transportation of oil and gas, the sale of oil and petrochemical products in the domestic and international markets.
On July 24, 2025, the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, SOCAR and Uzbekneftegaz JSC solemnly signed an agreement on the division of products. According to the document, exploration will be carried out in the Ustyurt region bordering Kazakhstan.
Now it has become known about the signing by Uzbekistan of the energy agreement with SOCAR. According to the document, Uzbekistan and SOCAR will invest $ 2 billion in the development of the East Ustyurt Oil Field, Petrocoumentsi reports.
The Ustyurt region, which geologically refers to the Turan slab, is a semi -desert plateau in Central Asia, located between the Caspian Sea in the west and the Aral Sea in the east, including the former Aral Sea water area. In its western part, Kazakhstan is located, and in the eastern - Uzbekistan.
At the same time, East Ustyurt is an extensive part of the Ustyurt plateau, with great potential for exploration and hydrocarbon production.
The territory of the plateau itself occupies an area of about 200,000 square kilometers. The region is rich in oil and natural gas deposits, as well as other mineral resources.
From the last century, Kazakhstan has been actively developing its own deposits (some have already been exhausted) of black gold. Now is the turn for Uzbekistan.
In Soviet times, in the 1950s, a geological study was conducted by the Uzbek part of Ustyurt for oil, gas and water using seismic and deep drilling. Then drilling on 50 areas were carried out, 43 of which were withdrawn from search drilling with a negative result.
Soviet geologists reached the cut of a yur-anthropogened cover, Perm-release and Doperm Paleozoic. However, they found blue fuel there - 7 gas condensate deposits were open.
As a result, Soviet researchers came to the conclusion that "no high oil and gas was in this region." However, since then, high technologies have become widespread, allowing to carry out deep and effective drilling, and new solutions have appeared.
According to the NEFTeGAZ portal, a relatively high forecast assessment of hydrocarbons of this region gives the basis for continuing search and exploration under the new program.
The study of the geology and lawnia of the East Ustyurt region continued in 2006, after the signing of the "Agreement on the basic principles of the geological study of the subsoil of investment blocks of the Ustyurt region of the Republic of Uzbekistan" between Uzbekneftegaz and the Russian "Gazprom".
And now Uzbekistan in partnership with the State Oil Company of Socar Azerbaijan plans to discover a large oil field. The initial forecasts suggest that about 100 million tons of oil and 35 billion cubic meters of natural gas can be stored in the Ustyurt region.
As soon as the project comes into force, it can produce 5 million tons of oil per year. This is 2.5 times higher than the entire volume of oil imports, which Uzbekistan imports from abroad.
The project is expected to satisfy the demand for oil in Uzbekistan over the next 25 years. Perhaps this is only the beginning. Currently, geologists are evaluating the forecast resources of the extracted hydrocarbons of Eastern Ustyurt in the amount of 970 million tons of oil equivalent.
According to oil reserves, Uzbekistan confidently enters the first fifty countries of the world with black gold (approximately 45th place).
Experts note that the oil fields of Uzbekistan are not limited to the Ustyurt region. The main part - more than 75% of the already proven reserves - is concentrated in one Kashkadarya region, including 70% in the Kokumlak deposit.
In 2021, the country was opened in the country the largest viscous oil and bitumen deposit in the country, located in the Zerafshanskaya hollow on the border of the Samarkand and Navois regions. Its reserves are estimated at 100 million tons, and the maximum production in 2025 is predicted at 1 million tons of bitumen oil.
Oil deposits are also explored in Karakalpastan and six regions of the country: Kashkadarya, Bukhara, Surkhandarya, Namangan, Andijan and Ferghana.
The development of the border deposit of the Kokumlak, more than 50% of which is concentrated in Turkmenistan, is carried out in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement between Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, signed in March 1997. In accordance with the terms of the agreement, part of the oil produced is delivered free of charge at the Seidin refinery in Turkmenistan.
At the same time, today Uzbekistan imports most of the oil from abroad. The republic largely depends on oil from Kazakhstan. A small part is imported from Turkmenistan and Russia.
If even when Uzbekistan begins to extract hydrocarbons in large volumes in its own territory, Kazakhstan will lose a solid market for their oil in the region.
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