DUSHANBE, April 2, 2012, Asia-Plus — A delegation Tajiktransgaz (Tajik state natural gas distributor), led by its head, Saidahmad Sharofiddinov, is currently in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to discuss resumption of Uzbek gas deliveries to Tajikistan, an official source at Tajiktransgaz told Asia-Plus Monday afternoon.
Earlier, Saidahmad Sharofiddinov said in an interview with Asia-Plus that in late March they sent a letter to the Uzbek authorities over supplying Turkmen natural-gas to Tajikistan via Uzbekistan’s gas pipeline system and the Turkmen gas transit issue will be discussed as well.
“There is no an official agreement with Turkmenistan, but they are ready to supply natural gas to Tajikistan,” Sharofiddinov had earlier told Asia-Plus in an interview.
Uzbekistan reportedly halted natural gas deliveries to Tajikistan on April 1. Some source say that referring to point 2 of the agreement, the Uzbek side noted that that the three-month contract expired.
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.
It is to be noted that Uzbekistan, which is Tajikistan”s only supplier of natural gas, routinely suspends deliveries amid complaints of nonpayment.
