DUSHANBE, November 23, 2012, Asia-Plus — Tajikistan has reportedly begun negotiations with Uzbekistan on natural-gas shipments in 2013.
An official source at Tojiktransgaz (Tajik natural-gas distributor) says the negotiating process began in mid-November by means of exchange of official letters and negotiations are still being conducted at the level of heads of Tojiktransgaz and Uztransgaz (Uzbek natural-gas supplier).
“We are getting replies to our letters and we hope that the main negotiations will be successful,” the source said.
According to him, Tajikistan is expected to buy 200 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan. “However, this volume may be lowered ,” said he. “Our country has reduced considerably natural-gas imports from Uzbekistan in recent years due to high prices.”
The main consumers of Uzbek gas in Tajikistan are now the Tajik Aluminum Company (TALCO) and Tojikcement (Dushanbe cement plant). “Current price of 1,000 cubic meters of Uzbek gas for them is 380.00 U.S. dollars,” the source said.
As far as the residential customers are concerned, more than 90 percent of them have not received natural gas since 2009 because of high prices.
Uzbek natural gas prices vary quarterly depending on the world trends and Tajikistan must make prepayments every ten days.
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.
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. In the third quarter, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at US$284.33 per 1,000 cubic meters and the price for the fourth quarter was US$311.00.
According to a monthly report for November 2012,
Monitoring or Early Warning in Tajikistan
, natural gas imports in October were 8.4 million cubic meters, 1.3 million cubic meters less than in September 2012, and 7.0 million cubic meters less than for the same period in 2011. For the first 10 months 2012, gas imports totaled 114.8 million cubic meters , 36.8 million cubic meters less than for the same period in 2011 (151.6 million cubic meters), the report says.
