DUSHANBE, January 4, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan has still failed to reach an agreement with Uzbekistan on gas shipments for 2012.
Uzbekistan stopped gas shipments to Tajikistan Wednesday (January 4) morning as the agreement between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on gas supplies in 2011 expired.
Davlat Nazri, a spokesman for the Tajik Foreign ministry, told reporters on January 4 that Tajikistan has repeatedly applied to Uzbekistan regarding signing of an agreement on Uzbek natural gas shipments to Tajikistan in 2012.
“Thus, top managers from Tojiktransgaz (Tajik natural-gas distributor) asked their colleagues from Uztransgaz (Uzbekistan’s state gas producer) in August 2011 to meet to discuss the Uzbek gas shipments to Tajikistan in 2012,” said Nazri. “The Uzbek side, however, postponed the meeting for later period. On November 18, 2011, Tojiktransgaz sent an appropriate letter to Uztransgaz, but the letter has remained unresponded. On December 22, 2011, Tajik Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon sent a letter on this subject to Uzbek Vice-Premier Rustam Azimov. Azimov noted that negotiations with the main consumers of Uzbek natural gas – Russia and China – are under way and that signing of an agreement on Uzbek gas shipments to Tajikistan is still impossible.”
According to Nazri, Tajik ambassador to Uzbekistan has also repeatedly applied to relevant Uzbek bodies on the Uzbek gas shipment to Tajikistan in 2012.
The Tajik MFA spokesman added that Uzbek ambassador to Tajikistan was summoned to the Tajik MFA Wednesday morning and Tajik president’s message to Uzbek president was handed to him.
We will recall that Tajikistan planned to buy some 180 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan in 2011. The gas prices vary quarterly depending on the world trends and Tajikistan must make prepayments every ten days.
In the first quarter of 2011, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at US$227.85 per 1,000 cubic meters, while the price for the second quarter was US$249.19 per 1,000 cubic meters, and in the third quarter, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at US$284.33 per 1,000 cubic meters.
In 2010, an average price of 1,000 cubic meters of Uzbek natural gas for Tajikistan was US$240.00; in the first quarter of 2010, the price of 1,000 cubic meters of Uzbek gas was US$231.00 and in the fourth quarter, it rose to US$254.00.
