Russian Minister of Energy Nikolai Shulgin met with the Minister of Energy and Water Resources of Tajikistan Daler Juma on October 13 in Moscow to discuss cooperation issues.
The Ministry of Energy of Russia says the parties discussed a number of important issues aspects of the bilateral energy cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan.
In the course of the talks, they reportedly reached agreement on additional volumes of indicative balances for 2024, Recall, a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on duty-free Russian oil product deliveries to Tajikistan was signed in Moscow on February 6, 2013
Under this agreement, the sides consider and endorse the indicative fuel balance for the next calendar before October 1 of each year. Fuels delivered in addition to the indicative fuel balance will be liable to export duty.
Russian oil products delivered to Tajikistan in the volumes not exceeding those agreed on indicative balance are not subject to re-export to the third countries.
The Russian Energy Ministry’s press service notes that a special attention during the meeting was paid to the issues related to the operation of the Sangtu-1 hydroelectric power plant in Tajikistan.
As it had been reported earlier, the Sangtuda-1 HPP, which is the second largest hydropower plant in Tajikistan, may be forced to suspend its operations due to due to the fact that Tajikistan’s Ministry of Energy and Water Resources (MoEWR) has not granted the work permits to the plant for already several months without explaining the reason.
The construction of the Sangtuda-1 hydropower plant located some 110 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe began in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s, only 20% of the construction work had been completed, and further construction was suspended due to a civil war that broke out in Tajikistan in the early 1990s. The talks between Russia and Tajikistan on completing the construction of the Sangtuda-1 HPP began in 2003 and in 2004 the parties signed an inter-governmental agreement.
Tajik and Russian presidents officially unveiled the fourth and last unit of the Sangtuda-1 HPP on July 31, 2009.
Barqi Tojik (Tajikistan’s power utility company) is the only buyer of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP.
Meanwhile, OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1, which operates the Sangtuda-1 HPP, seeks an opportunity to sell electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP itself.
The company has repeatedly raised the issue of increasing the supply of electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP and independently exporting it at different levels.
Representative of OJSC Sangtudinskaya GES-1 say that according to the agreements concluded, the company has the right “to sell electricity generated by the Sangtuda-1 HPP in accordance with direct contracts and export it by itself.”
These rights are reportedly enshrined in a government-to-government agreement between Tajikistan and Russia on the procedure and conditions for joint participation in construction of the Sangtuda-1.
