DUSHANBE, November 7, Asia-Plus  -- Since the beginning of this year, Tajikistan has received little more than 410 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan, Shavkat Shoimov, the deputy director of the Tajik state natural-gas distributor, Tojikgaz, said in an interview the Asia-Plus.  

Meanwhile, Tajikistan should have received 483 million cubic meters of the Uzbek natural gas over the report period, however, Uzbekistan has cut natural-gas shipments due to Tojikgaz’s debt, Shoimov noted.  

He reminded that an agreement on natural gas imported from Uzbekistan, concluded with officials from Uztransgaz, the state gas producer in Uzbekistan, in December 2007 set the price of gas imports at $145 per 1,000 cubic meters, nearly 50 percent increase over the 2007 price.  The agreement covered the import of 650 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan through 2008.   

“At present we are negotiating the possibility of increasing natural-gas shipments because the country’s requirements in natural gas have increased,” Shoimov said.

He added that they had partially repaid their debt to Uztransgaz and Tojikgaz now owes US$2.3 million to the Uzbek state natural-gas producer.       

In the meantime, Tajikistan has not yet started negotiations with Uzbekistan on prices for natural-gas imports for 2009.  According to Shoimov, the Uzbek side has not yet informed them about the gas prices for 2009.  “We have not yet received any proposals from our Uzbek colleagues on a specific price for natural gas for the next year,” the Tojikgaz official said.