DUSHANBE, March 9, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Uzbekistan has reportedly increased natural-gas shipments to Tajikistan.

According to Tojiktransgaz (Tajik state natural-gas distributor), Uzbekistan has increased natural-gas supplies to Tajikistan from 15,000 cubic meters per hour in late February to 20,000-25,000 cubic meters per hour.  “Increase in gas supplies has resulted from increase in an amount of prepayment,” the source said, noting that the last prepayment amounted to 1.7 million U.S. dollars.

Since the beginning of this year, Tajikistan has imported more than 30 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan, the source said.

We will recall that Tajikistan will buy 250 million cubic meters of natural gas from Uzbekistan this year and the gas price will vary quarterly depending on the world trends.  Uzbekistan still set gas price for Tajikistan at the rate of 231 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters and Tajikistan must make prepayments every ten days.