DUSHANBE (Asia-Plus) – Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have signed an agreement on Uzbek natural gas deliveries to Tajikistan.

Last Wednesday morning, Uzbekistan has halted exports of natural gas to Tajikistan. Uzbek state gas producer Uztransgaz turned off the spigots to the dismay of Tajik authorities, because a new contract on gas supplies has not yet been signed.

Thursday, a Tajik delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Murodali Alimardon (مرادعلی علیمردان), visited Tashkent to discuss Uzbek gas shipments to Tajikistan for the current. Head of Tojiktransgaz (Tajik natural-gas distributor), Saidahmad Sharofiddinov (سعیداحد شرف الدینوف), told Asia-Plus Friday afternoon that the sides reached an agreement and Tajikistan plans to buy some 200 million m³ of natural gas from Uzbekistan in 2012. “Uzbekistan resumed gas shipments to Tajikistan on January 6,” the Tojiktransgaz top manager noted.

According to him, the price for Uzbek deliveries to Tajikistan will be coordinated later. However, he said that compared to 2011 the prices will be lower. Sharofiddinov added that Tajikistan imported 180 million m³ from Uzbekistan in 2011. The gas prices vary quarterly depending on the world trends and Tajikistan must make prepayments every ten days.

Sharofiddinov admitted that decrepit pipelines in the country’s southwest prevented Tojiktransgaz to supply Tajikazot company, one of the largest industrial enterprises in Khatlon province.

In the first quarter of 2011, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at US $227.85/ 1,000 m³, while the price for the second quarter was $249.19/1,000 m³. In the third quarter, Tajikistan bought natural gas from Uzbekistan at $284.33/1,000 m³ and the price for the fourth quarter was $311.00.

In 2010, the average price of 1,000 m³ of Uzbek natural gas for Tajikistan was $240.00. It varied from $231 in the first quarter to $254 in the fourth quarter.