DUSHANBE. September 29, 2009, Asia-Plus – Tajik delegation led by Saidmahmad Sharofiddinov, the director general of Tojiktransgaz (Tajik state natural-gas distributor), has departed for Tashkent to negotiate with their Uzbek colleagues over regulation of Tajikistan’s gas debts.
The source at Tojiktransgaz said that the sides would also discuss issues related to Uzbek gas shipments to Tajikistan in 2010.
According to some sources, Tajikistan currently does not receive natural gas from Uzbekistan. We will recall that as of early September this year, Tojiktransgaz owed more than 16 million U.S. dollars to Uzbek gas companies.
This year, Uzbekistan sells its natural gas to Tajikistan for US$240 per 1,000 cubic meters. Tajikistan plans to buy some 550 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan this year.
In the meantime, Uzbekistan has suspended its gas supply to the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh, RFE/RL”s Kyrgyz and Uzbek services reported on September 26. Osh Deputy Mayor Alymzhan Baygazakov told RFE/RL that gas supplies were suspended recently to the southern Kyrgyz cities of Osh, Jalalabad, and Batken. He added that Osh owes some $2 million of Kyrgyzstan”s overall $18 million gas debt to Uzbekistan. Salamat Aytikeev, the head of the KyrgyzGaz state energy company, traveled to Tashkent to conduct negotiations with his Uzbek counterparts on September 24.
