Tajik authorities plan to increase production of coal tenfold and bring annual production to 15 million tons by 2040.
This is stated in a concept for development of the coal industry in Tajikistan, designed for the period to 2040. The government has approved this document.
Last year, Tajikistan produced little more than 1.9 million tons of coal.
The concept provides for increasing coal production to 10.4 million tons by 2030 (7.6-fold increase) and to 15 million tons by 2040 (11-fold increase).
The concept authors stress that the coal industry is one of the most important structures of the country’s fuel-and-energy complex.
21 coal deposits with a total possible coal reserve of 3.6 billion tons are reportedly registered in Tajikistan.
18 enterprises are now engaged in producing coal in Tajikistan. In 2018, Tajik coal-extracting enterprises produced 1.9 million tons of coal (93-fold increase compared to 2000).
Currently, four state-run and six private companies are engaged in extracting coal at eight coal deposits and coal mines.
Estimated reserves of these deposits are reportedly 2.6 million tons of coal. The shares of open-pit mining and underground mining are 70% and 30% respectively.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies (MoINT), last year the coal consumers were the Dushanbe combined heat and power plants – 60 percent, industrial enterprises – 32.1 percent, residential customers – 6.0 percent, and the federally funded institutions – 1.0 percent.
Besides, 0.9 percent of cola produced in Tajikistan last year was exported to other countries.
Since 2007, more than 160 industrial enterprises in Tajikistan have been shifted to coal and 230 coal-fired enterprises now operate in the country.
Exploration and development of coal fields has been intensified in Tajikistan since 2012 when Uzbekistan stopped gas shipments to Tajikistan.
Coal deposits of Tajikistan are reportedly concentrated in two coal basins: Tajik (Gissar-Darvaz) and Fergana. The first of them covers the absolute majority of deposits and occurrences concentrated in central and southern Tajikistan. Deposits and occurrences of northern Tajikistan belong to the South Fergana coal basin.
The coal deposits of the Tajik coal basin in the vast majority of cases are exposed in the mountain ranges of the Tien Shan and Pamir-Alay, framing the Afghan-Tajik basin.
On the territory of Tajikistan there are four regions of development of carbonaceous deposits, each one has a number of characteristic features according to geological zoning: 1) Zarafshan-Gissar; 2) South-Gissar; 3) the Pamir Darvaz; and 4) south-Fergana
The biggest region, largest in acreage coal-bearing area that has the maximum number of coal veins, is Zarafshan-Hissar. The coal-bearing strata extends in almost uninterrupted strip from Panjakent to the river head of the Zarafshan River.
Meanwhile, Tajik ecologists express concern about increase in production of cola in the country.
The Government of Tajikistan intends to expand coal production in the country by 2020 and invest considerable funds in the infrastructure associated with this type of fossil fuel. Local environmental organizations opposed such plans and pointed out that this is fundamentally contrary to the international commitments undertaken by the country under the Paris Agreement.
“Tajikistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia region and is already experiencing significant negative effects of climate change. It is in the country's interest not only to insist on tougher goals to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases, but also to do everything possible to combat climate change at the national level. The large-scale development of the coal industry contradicts the principles of the existing national climate policy and international efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels,” – the Tajik NGO network on climate change said in a statement released on August 10 of 2017.
