DUSHANBE, February 17, 2010, Asia-Plus  - The Dushanbe power and heat station suspended operations today as its fuel oil reserves ran out, the source at the station said.

We will recall that the Dushanbe head and power station resumed operations at the end of last week in connection with cold weather that hit the Tajik capital recently.

The station was producing 52 gigacalories of heating and 25,000 kWh of electricity per hour, which was enough for providing with heating and electricity only a part of apartment buildings in Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni and Shohmansour districts.

The station now receives natural gas at the rate of only 3,000 cubic meters per hour.  In the meantime, the station’s fuel oil reserves were enough for only two or three days.

As it had been reported earlier, acute fuel shortages forced the Dushanbe power and heat station to suspend the heating season, which was launched on December 10, 2009, on February 1, 2010.  The heating season was suspended due to an acute shortage of natural gas, which is the main fuel for the station.