DUSHANBE, December 22, 2008, Asia-Plus — There ought not to expect decrease in prices of Uzbek natural-gas supplies for 2009, Tajik economist Usmon Rahmonov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, Uzbekistan realizes well that Tajikistan is not yet able to provide domestic market with local natural gas and there is no alternative to Uzbek gas. “Our country needs at least 500 million cubic meters of natural gas per year and at present Uzbekistan is the only natural-gas supplier,” said the expert, “Realizing this, the neighboring country will continue to dictate its terms during ongoing negotiations on prices for imports of Uzbek natural gas. I don’t think that Uzbekistan will make concessions despite expected fall in the world natural-gas prices.”
As it had been reported earlier, Tojikgaz (Tajik state natural-gas distributor) in early December conducted consultations with Uztransgaz, the state gas producer in Uzbekistan, over natural-gas shipments for 2009. According to Tojikgaz, Tajikistan intends to purchase 550 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan in 2009. However, the Uzbek side has not yet made decision on prices for natural-gas for Tajikistan, according to Tojikgaz. The Tojikgaz 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.” “The world gas prices are expected to be decreasing in the second half of 2009 as well. In this 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 experts 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.
In the meantime, Kyrgyz news agency, 24.kg, reported on December 15 that Uzbekistan had set gas price for Kyrgyzstan at the rate of $300 per 1,000 cubic meters.
