Difficulties in finding fuel in Uzbekistan
 

Hi guys, been in Uzbek for 3 days now, via Beyneu border in Kazakhstan. Might not be everywhere in Uzbek, but so far all fuel stations from border to Khiva are closed. Fuel ( petrol and diesel) can be found only on the black market.
We have been spending lots of time looking for it.
Make sure you bring lots of fuel.
It is possible to buy some but, as i said, black market and hard to find!

Will tell if it gets better as we move to Bukhara and Samarkand! For now we need a rest, been tough few days of hard riding and intense heat!

Hey maria

Thanks for the info.. Been following your trip since a few weeks now. I'm heading there (end destination Japan) next month or so.
I wonder if the fuel situation is abnormal or not as, from what I heard, it's always hard to find fuel there..
Anyways, enjoy the trip!
A.

Hi, just been explained and for what i understand, it is a deliberate government decision.
It seems they are moving toward biofuel and LPG only.

So might be general. We may be able to find fuel in khiva or Urgench, but after that been told we may not find anything till Bukhara! So we are going to get containers to carry extra fuel. We already have an 8 l fuel bladder but not enough.

Cheers,

thank you marıa for the report !
I should be ın uzbekıstan 2 weeks now !!

I'm glad I got a 48 L tank ;)

Cola bottles have the same size hole as a petrol pump nozzle and are very robust. Easier to transport if you put 2 bottles in a plastic bag and knot it.

Good luck!

No pumps. It comes from big water bottles (5 or 10 litres) ! Thx for suggestion, might be good idea Chris!

The hotel manager is taking us tomorrow somewhere to buy fuel! So we can stock pile and make it to our next destination! We'll see!

See below the husband getting black market fuel! Happy we found fuel! Yay!

Well, at trip like yours (and hopefully mine in two weeks) these things, amongst many others obv, are what made it interesting.. It shouldn't all be 'a stroll in the park' :-)
Enjoy and thanks again for the information!
A.

This is normal in Uzbekistan. Working petrol pumps, ATMs, internet connection is not always available.

The fuel situation gets better as you get closer to Tashkent, i.e. it can be bought at the pumps, though rarely at the advertised price.

Sorry but as we just did the same route as you and are in Buchara now and were in Khiva 2 days ago coming from Bejneu 5 days ago, I CAN ABSOLUTELY NOT CONFIRM THIS!!

90% here uses LPG, so all the fuel stations cannot survive on the few customers passing by driving on Benzin or Diesel. So most station are closed, the ones surviving mostly have only 1 kind of fuel, Diesel or Bezin. In agriculture cities, mostly 10 to 15 km from the highway you find diesel allways, in every densed populated city you find benzin.

If you want to find it in between, just ask any truckdriver or restaurant along the road and it will be brought to you within a few minutes.

Price between 80 and 100 dollarcents/ltr

GRTZ,

JP

All i am saying is that so far we have not found a single fuel station opened, but then i speak very little russian. THe only benzin we found was from black market. Now in Khiva, the hotel owner took us to a house where we bought enough fuel to get to Bukhara. Maybe you where able to find Benzin, but for us it has been a constant worry.... Is there any fuel station between khiva and bukhara? Not sure we can make it. We spent two hours trying most fuel pumps in Nukus and did not find one working. So maybe you were lucky or we have been very unlucky....

Incidentally, even the hotel owner has to buy his fuel from the black market not from a fuel pump. He took us to his provide in a house! A group of Moldavian riders, that we met at the border, who speak very good russian, had the same issue....

What we're saying is that there is fuel, you just have to ask. You don't need to speak Russian to point at a car / bike / jerrycan and say 'benzin' :D I must admit however it is very frustrating to find petrol station after petrol station closed. When I used to stay in Tashkent, I once very nearly ran out of diesel looking for fuel in the sprawling outskirts of the city. Turns out the only fuel station in the area with diesel was the one at the end of the road I was staying on!

Once, in the desert city of Uchquduq, I needed diesel. I walked around until I smelt a diesel car - a few drivers with old Ford Transit minubuses. One driver whom I asked (admittedly in Russian) jumped in his Transit and told me to follow, back to his garage. Underneath a trap door was a cache of diesel - which he pumped up into jerries which were then poured into my truck. After all this work he actually charged me less (S1500) than the advertised prices at the moribund petrol pumps (S1600), and even filled my water container at his house...

Uzbekistan has a massive informal economy. Cash + asking the right people will get you what you need :thumbup1:

Between Khiva and Bukhara there will be fuel, but only close to Urgench / Bukhara. Try to top up in Urgench and then refill at the first place close to Bukhara. If you don't have the fuel range to cover distances between cities in the desert, maybe you should have brought jerrycans!

what a very useful thread I would not have known about should it not been posted.
Will put that in my "everything you need to know about Uzbekistan list" :thumbup1:

Hope you found some toothpaste Maria...........

hahaha !!!
:clap:

Last summer I had a heck of a time finding any station with benzine. If it did have benzine, there would be a line of 30 or so cars waiting to fill their jugs.. so they could sell it to a sucker like me on the black market :rofl:

If you are buying from a gas station, use Uzbek money. If you are buying from black market, you can sometimes get a better deal by using $1 for 1 liter. Some places they wanted to charge me as much as 5000 som per liter. When I showed them american currency, they gladly accepted $1/liter.

Also, the fuel is shit. If you are buying form the black market, it is probably 80 octane. If they say it is 91, they are lying to you. Good luck. Carry extra. Fill up whenever you see it.

Russian lesson for finding fuel:
"gday eta benzine" = "where is benzine?"
"skoyka kilomet" = "how many kilometers?"
"Skoyka stoyet" = "how much money?"

We saw a benzin pump that looked opened, in Urgench, in a ring road. When u come from Khiva, big round about, turn right. This is the only big round about so easy to spot. Also, we passe two houses with the 5 litre water bottles that must be benzin again by the colour of it.


Then we found a fuel pump where we bought fuel, in the middle of the desert, about 80 miles ( sorry not sure how far!) from Bukhara. We have seen fuel pump also round Bukhara so will test one tomorrow. So problem seems to be round the north west provinces, coming from Beineu.

About 100 miles after the border, there is a chaihana that had diesel ( sold to some american embassy staff) but refused to sell us benzin saying it was too bad quality.
You can sleep there as well by the way! Clean and showers! Also they have food and water.

About 40 or 50 miles before Qonghirat, there is a huge Chaihana, from the road a sign say you can get food, showers and fuel.( after some big industrial and construction site, easy to spot).

When we turned up they told us we could get fuel from Qonghirat. We were in reserve so no way to make it. They eventually agreed to sell us fuel but we pay a lot for it.
We did not stop at qonghirat but went to Nukus, thinking a big town we would find benzin! We turned around for two hours, asking everyone, every methane or whatever sort of provider we could find. We came across a very long queue of cars. They were even sleeping in their car. We thought it was for benzin but it was for diesel. They came to see us, curious and eventually someone produce two bottles of 5 litres water filled with benzin. Got it for a more reasonable price..... Then again in a village, by asking we got some bit of more fuel... All in all not easy but yes you can but fuel... You just need to keep asking and make sure you can cove 250 or even better 300 miles... Long distances in the desert!
Hope this help! Sorry for typos, using tablet not easy to type long notes!
Cheers,

Totally normal in west uzbekistan , look out for people at the side of the road with what looks like a cooking oil bottle , they a normally selling black market fuel .

Home MOTOLOCO.EU

the best quality benzin in NW Uzbekistan is usually smuggled in from Turkmenistan and is blue in colour. Ask around for Turkmen Benzin if you get the chance. Roadside chaikhanas where trucks and highway vehicles stop is a natural place to ask around for fuel.

In the populated south and east, working fuel stations are the norm.

In the NW its all black market stuff, but as others have said its pretty much always available.

There is a lot that doesn't work about Uzbekistan. Fuel in the north west is but one thing on a long list - But there is no problem on the list that cant easily be resolved or worked around. And the food is great, history is great, mountains are lovely. So its all part of the adventure.

It will be easier to find at fuel stations as you reach Samarkand and then Tashkent.
In Fergana valley, it will be easy.

Until then, don't loose your time searching for fuel pumps: ask at the bazaar and at truck stops.
Fuel is not so easy to find, but if you ask, you'll find it withouth so much trouble even in the smaller villages

Hi,

And about the diesel's quality on black market? I have a bad experience about it ib Iran (2011)...
Is it possible to have a list of some towns where I can be almost sure to have diesel from a nomal gaz station?
Another question: coming from Turkm, is it possible to fill all my tanks (160l.) before entering Uzb.?

Thanks,

RR.

Diesel is generally much harder to find than petrol in UZ, so stock up on as much as possible.

Yes, I know and I can fill for 160l of Diesel.
But I prefer ask again:

"Is it possible to have a list of some towns where I can be almost sure to have diesel from a nomal gaz station?
Another question: coming from Turkm, is it possible to fill all my tanks (160l.) before entering Uzb.?"


Thanks in advance,

RR.

hello,
in 2013 we try benzine..;here

Thanks Tiger for your reply!
Any other experience?
RR.

Hi,
Old post but I need to be sure;
Can somebody tell me which towns in Uzb where I'll be sure to find diesel?

RR.

euro Diesel - Tashkent city

tractor Diesel -Bukhara, Samarkand and etc big towns

The majority of cars in Uzbekistan use the liquefied gas instead of gasoline and the diesel. They remake cars fuel system.

Thanks a lot Engel for your very accurate reply.

So if I understand well, as I have a "modern" engine (diesel) (ie HDI), the better solution is to refill only in Tashkent because "tractor" diesel will be a problem for my injection system (sorry I'm French and I don't know the exact name for that).
And plan to have another tank for not worrying about that.
What is your opinion?

RR

Yes in did. The best option IMHO is not to play a roulette with fuel quality. Mount extra tanks and fill them up in Kazakhstan or Kirgizstan with "euro" diesel at the brend name petrol station.

I'm entering Uzb from Turkm. Is there also euro-diesel in Turmenistan?

Thanks,

RR.

I do not know, sorry.

No problem, I'll try to find out some infos...
RR?

fuel shortage in Uzbekistan
 

Hi all,

it is still (08/2015) difficult to find petrol (benzin) in Uzbekistan. And the fuel you get (most of the time from street vendors) is very bad quality mixed with water. I never came across blue benzin, it was all yellowish depending on the level of water added I assume. I had to clean the fuel filter twice, as I could see the water and dirt in it. And also my bike (a Suzuki DR 350) had problems. Prices: I paid where between 2700 somonis and 4000 somonis. Once somebody asked for 6000 somonis, but i refused and found somewhere else. Black market rate for the USD was 4500 to 4600 somonis. In Nukus it took me 1,5 hours to find 30 liters of fuel and I speak/understand a bit of Russian. Fill up where ever you can.

mika

In July I found enough benzin in regular gas stations in Uzbekistan.

I came from Beyneu and went to Nukus, Bukhara, Samarkand, Tashkent and to Kirgistan.

You can find regular gas stations all over, never more then 300km and I had no problems with benzin, a lot of times ( mostly ) 80, but it worked without any problems.

I gave some waypoints to walter.

Anyone have recent information on where to buy gasoline in Uzbekistan?
A friend of mine is in Tajikistan now, and he say that he is hearing from other travelers that they are having major troubles finding fuel in Uzbekistan. He is heading to the ferry at Aktau, and is worried about running out of gas on that long stretch through the desert.
If anyone has recent info., please post here.
For example. "Gas station open at XXX coordinates", "Hotel XXXX got fuel for us".

Not sure if anything has changed but you need to hunt on the black market often. Fuel sellers have bottles at the side of the road.

I think the talk of problems is just westerners going there and shocked to see the fuel stations empty and unaware / scared of asking around on the black market.

But indeed there may be a genuine shortage, though I have not heard of it and cannot see that anything has really changed.

There is always a shortage at harvest time when diesel is reserved for agricultural use.

I fully agree with.
I was in Uzbekistan in June and crossed it from west to east.
I got fuel only once on a official fuel station.
So the black market is the place where you get fuel, bad quality, but the engine is running. One has to ask in hotels or taxi drivers to know where fuel is available.

I was in usbekistran a wek ago.

I only found 2 regular Gas stations, one had even 92.

But we asked for gas at Hotels, gas stations or truck stops.

It never took us longer than 5 minutes to find benzin.

At Lali opa in Khiva you get benzin and in Samarkand is the black market near Registan.

East of Bukhara it was OK, we always found fuel at a petrol station. From Urgench westward it becomes very difficult. But if you ask around somebody will make you an offer (that you can't refuse).

Note that in Beyneu (Kaz), fuel is available in limited quantity too.

Laurent

As most on here have said, it's generally only black market fuel that's available until you get to Samarkand.

We found petrol in Nukus and Bukhara on the black market. Ask at your hotel and generally they will know someone who can help.

We didn't go to the Aral Sea or Khiva as we didn't have the range in our tanks to get us there, and couldn't guarantee getting fuel there.

Be wary of the quality; ask for as high octane as possible, use an external filter when filling. Plus, it is a good idea to carry a bottle of octane booster, as you can't always rely on the octane being what they say.

In addition to our 17L fuel tank, we had 2x3L jerricans each, and another 3L in coke bottles, giving us just over 500km range in our tanks. In my opinion, you need to have at least 500km range, so get jerricans, bottles or whatever to get you through.

Khiva was no problem to get fuel.

And do not worry, it is easy to tell the quality, jut rely, that is only 80.

And in Nukus we found regular gas stations.

I crossed Uzbekistan (West to East) in June this year. You can always find petrol but you have to use your initiative. Hotels and taxi drivers are your best bet for finding black market petrol. I only found one petrol station open and that was selling 80 octane. In Moyanak, some road workers siphoned their car so I could get to the next town of Nukus.

There are 3 colours to look out for.
Green is generally 92 octane
Yellow is 80 octane
Black or dark colour - avoid at all costs!

Waypoints are of fairly limited use in the everlasting north west Uzbekistan fuel rationing situation.... one day one station will have some. Another day a different place will have some and the earlier place will be out. It could provide a false sense of security. Better to get it whenever you have a chance. In any of the bigger towns.

Locals know where to find fuel... always. You will always get some if you ask around. They will even give from their own stash or even siphon their own tank if no stations nearby have any.

Coming from the west the first and last station was in Buchara. But getting fuel was no problem in bigger cities. Mostly the vendors put water bottles filled with petrol beside the road that you find them. Prices between 4000 - 5500 sum.
Cheers from Khorogh
Oh was in August :-)

That is true, West of Buchara is Turkmenistan, but North of Bukhara you find open Gas Stations on the way to Kasachstan, zb in Nukus.

Hi,

When you say "fuel" you mean diesel fuel or gasoline?

RR.

I just can tell about me and I mean benzine.
As I ride motorcycles I don't know anything about diesel

So, Something new about Diesel shortage in Uzb?
RR.

The topic has been about gasoline/petrol (benzin).
Uzbekistan has moved to natural gas some years ago, and it is increasingly difficult to find the liquid fuel that our motorbikes like to drink. Not impossible, but you have to be careful or you can find yourself stranded. Don't expect roadside stands every few miles.
More here: Driving in Uzbekistan | Caravanistan

Yes, I know, I've already drive across Uzb in 2015 and I need to know if the diesel situation is the same, worse or better.
RR.

In 2016 the diesel situation was more or less the same. We got our last tank before Kaz at black market price in a small petrol station in Nukus (we asked around at various fuel stations that were only selling gas).

Thanks for your reply.
RR.

Hi,

I've read (from a french traveller) that in spring 2016 diesel was avalaible at Gas Station :scooter: between Boukhara and Tashkent:D (not Khiva)
Have you heard Something like that?
RR.

East of Bukhara it's no problem.

Thanks Ibendel:thumbup1:

So if someone was doing the route (I'm sure it's a favourite) Dushanbe - Samarkand - Bukhara - Khiva - Nukus - Beyneu - Aktau what sort of tank range would you expect to need, and how likely would you be to find petrol/gasoline in those major towns?

As mentioned above, you will find petrol/benzine, but mostly on the black market.
Watch out for plastic bottles beside the street, they sell benzin.

Only up north after Nukus you need more than 500km of range, because there is no benzin on the way to Beyneu anymore.

I have done the route the other way 2017

Hi
I will be coming from Turkmenistan to Bukhara, on to Samarkand and then Kudzund and across the border into Tajik.
Are these days doable bearing in mind the state of the roads? Also should i be bring petrol with me from Turkmenistan?
I will have a couple of days in both Bukhara and Samarkand to hunt around for petrol.

And does anyone know of a good motorcyle mechanic in Samarkand?

Just look for something like that:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1...923/mz631n.png

Hi I plan to traverse Uzbekistan in a couple of weeks, crossing the border at Beyneu and head towards Nukus fm there. I just read that this will be the hardest stretch considering fuel. My motorbike needs a top up every 300 km so I can't make this in one go.

Would it be possible to buy Jerry cans in Kazakhstan and take them across the border? Is there a limit in terms of fuel one can take across the border?

I did that twice and it was ok. It was not the problem of carrying a bigger amount of benzine, it was more a problem of the cans where it was.

we had 2 5L water bottles filled up with benzine and the Kazakh border guards did argue about that.

And honestly they where right, it is a safety problem and can easily cause a fire.

They did let us go because they know you need the benzine, but they really told us it is uncool.

The Uzbek the same, not the problem of the amount, just that we did carry it in water bottles

Hi Im now in Uzbekistan with a diesel car, and so far it has been pretty easy using GPS coordinates of others. Have paid 5000 or 6000 SOM per liter so pretty cheap too. I filled two jerrycans in Kazakhstan and the tank, filled up in Nukus, filled up before Bukhara, even from a station and not from jerrycan.
I can now make it to Tadjikistan I think, but I will even try to fill up here as diesel is more expensive in Tadjikistan.
But always check if the diesel is not black. There are several points in iOverlander app or the Hubb waypoints.

I wouldnt be afraid to cross this country in a car without extra fuel tanks or jerrycans. In fact, this is for me the final confirmation that I should never spend any money on a second fuel tank or more than a single jerrycan.

We drive a simple diesel from the nineties, but have met Germans with a Ford Transit Tdci and they didnt have problems either. Don't know about bringing a Euro5 or 6 diesel though.

The big difference between cars and bikes in this case is the tank range though. Cars can often do up to 1000 kms on a tank, bikes rarely above 400. I think extra fuel cans are going to be important if biking across UZ.

Most expedition cars can do maybe 500km even on diesel. Heavy, 4x4 it is just not fuel efficient.

Was there last year, before Khiva ther is Nukus, You get petrol in grosary shops or hotels and it is geting beter toward east.
have fun
Sašo


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I am in Samarkand now having came in on the west end. Have had no problems finding fuel. I have a 600k range when I count my 1 gal. spare, (3.8L), so everytime I got close to 300 I would start looking for fuel. farthest I went was 345k. Look for the old stations and ask for Benzin.

:scooter:

Crossed Uzbekistan twoweeks ago had no problem finding "Benzin" look for the older stations in the west. I have +600k range and would start looking for fuel when I hit 300. farthest I went was 340k before fuel. I was on main roads. In the west there is less of everything and you need to pay attention but I don't think you need to bring in several jugs.

People were wonderful and had no problems anywhere. Well maybe some beat up roads in need of repair, so don't expect an easy smooth ride.
RJ:scooter:

Does anyone know where we could find some cheap plastic jerry cans in Aktau to fill up before we go through Uzbekistan? I'm also looking for a pre-filter so we don't clog up the on-board filter with dirty diesel...

Get some 3 or 5 liter cans of water and drink it.
You need it anyway....

And then you have some cans

I'd need an awful lot of water bottles for a car, which is why I was thinking of larger containers. ;)

You'll probably find something in a local market. Maybe a large plastic drum from cooking oil. In a car you can carry that, not so easy on a bike ;)

The way to find fuel in Uzbekistan is asking in villages. There is fuel in EVERY village. It is easear in villages as they are small and people can direct you to the privet person that sells fuel in his back yard.

The problem is, that the fuel stations that are controlled by the government only get a certain amount of fuel each day (if any) and are bought out in no time every morning.

Good riding

Peter from MuzToo.ch

Hi,

Just to say I've crossed this year Uzb in June with my diesel car: no problem to find Gas oïl at normal station along the road : Kiva-Bukhara-Samarcand-Pendjikent.

It was not the same in 2015!

RR.

Maybe this whole thread should be put to bed. Its title is misleading and just adds to the rumour mill.

The OP posted not realising that black market fuel was/is the status quo in parts of Uzbekistan. This was not news at the time and is not news now.

So please think if it's really necessary to keep this thread alive by updating for the xx time that there is fuel available on the black market.

Especially when you can find easily fuel in normal gas stations!
RR.

It is the question what you consider normal fuel stations.

I was there this year Mid of August and we found 1 (!!) fuel station with benzin on the way from Panjakent to Khiva.

Maybe there was one in Nukus too which we did not need because of entering Turkmenistan.

For all the rest of the way we needed to get benzin from black market.

I have been to Usbekistan 3 times now.
What I figured, you find a gas station in one year, and next year it is gone, but maybe you find another one somewhere else.

It changes from year to year, and I think sometimes from spring to autumn

Hi,
I talk about diesel (for my car), not benzine.
RR.

Was very clear that you talked about diesel: