Tajikistan has faced rising liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices and is looking for alternative fuel supplies as Kazakhstan has decided to temporarily halt LNG exports and Russia has released free prices for this type of fuel.
Kazakh media reports say Kazakhstan has stopped liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), propane and butane exports for the period of three years to ensure its domestic market is fully supplied.
Kazakh Minister of Energy Almasadam Satkaliyev believes that liquefied petroleum gas prices will rise in Kazakhstan anyway.
Meanwhile, there is a liquefied petroleum gas shortage at gas stations in Kazakhstan and it is sold only with coupons.
An acute shortage of the liquefied petroleum gas has reportedly resulted in Kazakhstan from mass purchase of it by agricultural producers. They used the liquefied petroleum gas for drying grain in elevators.
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices have sharply risen in Tajikistan this month. In Dushanbe, LNG prices rose from 6.20 somonis per liter on October 9 to 7.00 somonis on October 13.
Kazakhstan, which is Central Asia’s biggest oil producer, provides the bulk of Tajikistan’s LNG imports, accounting for about 86 percent of Tajikistan’s LNG imports.
It is to be noted that more than 60 percent of motor vehicles in the country use liquefied natural gas as fuel.
Officials at the Antimonopoly Agency of Tajikistan say the LNG price hike has resulted from the rising cost of liquefied natural gas in the exporting countries, Kazakhstan and Russia.
