DUSHANBE, march 26, 2012, Asia-Plus — In a statement released on March 25, Uzbekistan’s state oil-and-gas company, Uzbekneftegaz, notes that report about stoppage of Uzbek gas deliveries to Tajikistan beginning on April 1 is “absolutely baseless.”
We will recall that a source at the Ministry of Energy and Industries of Tajikistan told Asia-Plus on March 24 that Uzbekistan intends to fully stop gas shipments to Tajikistan beginning on April 1, 2012. “In a letter sent to their Tajik colleagues, Uzbek gasmen have justified their decision to stop gas shipments to Tajikistan as based on shortage of natural-gas resources,” the source said.
Tojiktransgaz (Tajik natural-gas distributor) neither confirmed nor refuted the information about the full stoppage of gas shipments from Uzbekistan.
Tojiktransgaz says that over the first two months of this year, Uzbekistan has shipped some 45 million cubic meters of natural gas to Tajikistan – more than 30 million cubic meters were shipped in January and nearly 15 million cubic meters were shipped in February.
According to Tojiktransgaz, the quota of Uzbek natural gas for the first quota is 45 million cubic meters. It means that Tajikistan consumed the quarterly quota of natural gas in two months.
The price of Uzbek natural gas for the first quarter of 2012 was reportedly set the rate of 300.00 U.S. dollars at 1,000 cubic meters.
We will recall that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan signed an agreement on Uzbek natural gas deliveries to Tajikistan for this year on January 6, 2012. Tajikistan reportedly plans to buy some 200 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan this year.
The gas prices vary quarterly depending on the world trends and Tajikistan must make prepayments every ten days.
