DUSHANBE, January 7, 2009, Asia-Plus — There ought not to accuse Uzbekistan of having animosity to Tajikistan following gas price rises and Turkmen electricity transit suspension, because we ourselves are of blame for many problems facing us, deputy of Tajikistan’s lower house (Majlisi Namoyandagon) also leader of the Communist Party (CPT) Shodi Shabdolov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“Our neighbors are acting in accordance with rules of market economy, under which there are no friends or enemies but only business partners,” Shabdolov said reminding statement by former head of Russia’s Unified Energy Systems (RAO YeES) Anatoly Chubais that “market is no place for conscience and justice.”
“We should, first of all, learn to negotiate with our business partners, upholding our own interests because we will not be able to move anybody to pity by our appearance or attitude under the conditions of market economy,” MP said.
On the natural-gas supply problems, Shabdolov said that were ourselves were to blame for them, because “we missed the time factor.”
“During the Soviet time already, it had become known that Tajikistan is in one gas basin with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, but since it is located much higher than these countries above sea level, it is more difficult to develop gas deposits here. We were late with attracting foreign investments to explore and develop our gas deposits; it is to be noted that the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan are considerable.”
On the work on exploration of gas reserves and development of gas deposits with support of foreign capital, Shabdolov noted that Tajikistan would experience pressure on the part of Uzbekistan until the gas deposits are developed.
According to him, the way out of the present energy situation in the country is in intensifying attraction of foreign investment on mutually beneficial conditions and seeking alternative more profitable business partners as well as creating a common regional energy market.
“Tajik MPs have repeatedly applied to their colleagues in other Central Asian countries proposing to create the common energy market; however colleagues from the region”s hydrocarbon-rich countries have always declined our proposal despite the fact that the all the region’s countries would only profit from such a market,” the CPT leader said.
We will recall that the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000bn tons of reference fuel, according to expert estimates. At the same time, production work at oil and gas fields require considerable expenditure, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at depths ranging from 6.5 to 8 kilometers.
As it had been reported earlier, the agreement, concluded with Uztransgaz, the state gas producer in Uzbekistan, on December 31 sets the price of gas imports at $240 per 1,000 cubic meters for Tajikistan, a 65.5 percent increase over last year’s price, and covers the import of some 530 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan through 2009.
Besides, Uzbekistan suspended transit of Turkmen electricity to Tajikistan via its power systems on January 1 because Tajikistan had not yet signed an electricity transit agreement with Tashkent.
These two events have cause publication of a number of articles critical of official Tashkent in Tajik newspapers.
