DUSHANBE, March 31, 2011, Asia-Plus — Tajik fuel suppliers have increased oil product imports from Turkmenistan.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI), 12,914 tons of oil products have been imported from Turkmenistan over the first two months of this year, which is 16.4 percent of the country’s fuel imports for this period.
In the meantime, Russia has accounted for 78.6 percent of Tajikistan’s fuel imports over the same two-month period. 62,012 tons of oil products have been delivered to Tajikistan from Russia in January-February this year.
Tajikistan also imports oil products from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
In 2010, Tajikistan imported 630,000 tons of oil products for a total amount of 435 million U.S. dollars; Russia accounted for 90 percent of Tajikistan’s fuel imports last year and Russian company, Gazprom-Tajikistan, dominates the Tajik fuel market.
An average price of one ton of Russian gasoline last year was US$691; in January this year, it rose to US$843 and in February, to US$873. The rice hike has resulted from increasing Russian tariffs on gas exports to Tajikistan; current Russia’s export duty on light oil for Tajikistan is US$250.00.
Specialists from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MEDT) say that following rise in Russian tariffs on gas exports, Tajikistan has begun conducting negotiations with other petrol exporting countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. “Russia intends to raise tariffs on gas exports in the future as well, and therefore, we are forced to seek new partners for our fuel imports,” the MET experts noted.
We will recall that Tajikistan was exempted from paying Russian tariffs on light oil exports from 1995-2010. When Russia cancelled Tajikistan”s tax exemption last May, Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov sent a letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin asking for the tax-free status to be restored. Afterward, working groups from the two sides held several rounds of negotiations and the Tajik side has declared that the issue over tariffs was still under consideration by the Russian side.
On May 1, 2010, Russia introduced the export duty on light oil for Tajikistan at the rate of 203.7 U.S. dollars per one ton and on June 1, the export duty was raised to 209.1 U.S. dollars. On December 1, 2010, Russia raised the export duty on light oil to US$226.20. On February 1, 2011, Russia raised the export duty on light oil to U$232.20 and on March 1, 2011, Russian tariffs on light oil exports rose 5.3 percent to US$250.00.
