DUSHANBE, December 5, Asia-Plus — Top managers of Tojikgaz (Tajik state natural-gas-distributor) yesterday left for Tashkent, Uzbekistan to negotiate with Uzbek authorities natural-gas supplies for next year, Asia-plus has learned from the Tojikgaz director general Fathiddin Muhsiddinov.
According to him, the Tajik delegation led by the deputy Tojikgaz head, Saidmahmad Sharofiddinov, plans to reach an agreement with Uzbek counterparts on purchase of 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2008.
Muhsiddinov said that the Uzbek side had noted that gas prices would be set at world levels. “We have not yet received any information from our Uzbek colleagues about specific prices of gas for the next year,” said the Tojikgaz top manager, “However, the consultations in Tashkent are an attempt to get minimal increase in the new price that Uzbekistan plans to charge its foreign customers.”
In early 2007, Tajikistan reached an agreement with Uzbekistan on delivery of 700 million cubic meters of gas to Tajikistan in 2007 at the rate of $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. However, later Tajikistan decided to reduce the requested volume to 650 million cubic meters because many enterprises failed to purchase the requested volumes.
Specialists from Tojikgaz said that reduction in the overall requested volume had not impacted the public. “Tajikistan now receives natural gas at the rate of up to 3 million cubic meter per day, which is quite enough to meet the population’s requirements in natural gas,” said the Tojikgaz source, “562 million cubic meters of natural gas have been supplied to Tajikistan since the beginning of the year, and remaining 88 million cubic meters are enough to avoid gas shortages before the end of this year”
In the meantime, some Russian media say that Uzbekistan intends to raise the price of natural gas for foreign customers from $100 to $120 per 1,000 cubic meters starting on January 1. Uzbekistan justifies the decision as based on world market trends.
