DUSHANBE, December 15, 2008, Asia-Plus — Tojikgaz (Tajik state natural-gas distributor) has started consultations with Uztransgaz, the state gas producer in Uzbekistan, over natural-gas shipments for 2009.
Last week, the Tojikgaz director general Fathiddin heading Tojikgaz delegation was in Tashkent to negotiate the 2009 gas shipments with officials from Uztransgaz, according to the source at Tojikgaz.
The source noted that Tajikistan intended to purchase 550 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan in 2009. “However, our Uzbek colleagues have not yet made decision on prices for natural-gas for Tajikistan,” the source said.
“In the course of the talks, we have drawn attention of the Uzbek side to the fact that world energy-resource prices are falling,” he said, noting that world gas prices are expected to be decreasing “in the second half of 2009 as well.” “In the connection, we asked Uzbekistan to consider the possibility of decreasing gas export prices,” the source added.
It is to be noted that the news agency Ros-Busines-Konsulting (Russian Business Consulting)-Ukraine reported in early December that expects expect Russian state gas company, Gazrpom, to decrease the natural-gas prices in 2009 to the 2007 level.
We will recall that an agreement on natural gas imported from Uzbekistan, concluded with Uztransgaz in December 2007 set the price of gas imports at $145 per 1,000 cubic meters, nearly 50 percent increase over the 2007 price. The agreement covered the import of 650 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan through 2008.
