DUSHANBE, March 25, 2012, Asia-Plus — Uzbekistan will fully stop gas shipments to Tajikistan beginning on April 1, 2012, according to the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI).
The source at a MoEI says that in a letter sent to their Tajik colleagues, Uzbek gasmen have justified their decision to stop gas shipments to Tajikistan as based on shortage of natural-gas resources.
“But it is very hard to agree with such an explanation, because Uzbekistan now produces more than 200 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, which is practically an annual amount of natural gas for Tajikistan for this year, the source said.”
The source considers that the actual reason for stoppage by Uzbekistan of gas shipments to Tajikistan is a dispute between the two countries over the Farhad dam in northern Tajikistan.
“The area around the dam was leased to Uzbekistan in 1933 for 40 years and although the lease term had expired long ago, the Uzbek authorities do not want to return this territory to Tajikistan,” said the source. “Uzbekistan now intends to get hold of the dam and the reservoir, but the Tajik side does not agree.”
Tojiktransgaz (Tajik natural-gas distributor) neither confirmed nor refuted the information about the full stoppage of gas shipments from Uzbekistan.
Tojiktransgaz says that over the first two months of this year, Uzbekistan has shipped some 45 million cubic meters of natural gas to Tajikistan – more than 30 million cubic meters were shipped in January and nearly 15 million cubic meters were shipped in February.
Uzbek gas is mainly distributed to industrial enterprises and only a few part of it is distributed to residential customers.
According to Tojiktransgaz, the quota of Uzbek natural gas for the first quota is 45 million cubic meters. It means that Tajikistan consumed the quarterly quota of natural gas in two months.
The price of Uzbek natural gas for the first quarter of 2012 was reportedly set the rate of 300.00 U.S. dollars at 1,000 cubic meters.
We will recall that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed an agreement on Uzbek natural gas deliveries to Tajikistan for this year on January 6, 2012. Tajikistan reportedly plans to buy some 200 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan this year.
The gas prices vary quarterly depending on the world trends and Tajikistan must make prepayments every ten days.
In the first quarter of 2011, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at US$227.85 per 1,000 cubic meters, while the price for the second quarter was US$249.19 per 1,000 cubic meters. In the third quarter, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at US$284.33 per 1,000 cubic meters and the price for the fourth quarter was US$311.00.
In 2010, an average price of 1,000 cubic meters of Uzbek natural gas for Tajikistan was US$240.00; in the first quarter of 2010, the price of 1,000 cubic meters of Uzbek gas was US$231.00 and in the fourth quarter, it rose to US$254.00.
