By Eurasianet The government of Uzbekistan plans to invest $500mn on expanding capacity in its natural gas transportation system to enable a significant increase in imports from Russia, according to reporting by news website Gazeta.uz. Uzbekistan, whose own gas reserves have not been sufficient to meet annually surging demand, started receiving supplies of the fuel from Russia in October. Under a two-year deal with Gazprom, Uzbekistan imports 9mn cubic metres (mcm) of gas daily. Gazeta.uz reported on February 20, citing a government decree published earlier this month, that investment plans co…