Uzbekistan to raise natural gas prices for Tajikistan

RIA Novosti October 24 Uzbekistan plans to increase the price of natural gas exports to Tajikistan from $42 to $55 per thousand cu m in January 2006, the head of the state-owned Tajikgaz company said Monday. "Uztransgaz has informed us about the price hike to $55 beginning in January 2006," Huseyn Aliyev said. Tajikistan hopes to negotiate a more gradual price increase with Uztransgaz, the only gas exporter to Tajikistan. "Uzbekistan explained the move as a general trend on the world market," Aliyev said. In January-August 2005, Tajikistan increased natural gas imports from Uzbekistan to 425.5 million cu m totaling $18.1 million, compared with 415.5 million cu m in the same period of 2004. Uzbekistan plans to raise natural gas exports from 7.3 billion in 2002 to 20 billion cu m annually. Uzbekistan produces 58 billion cu m of gas a year. Tajikistan's own natural gas resources total over 860 billion cu m, experts say. However, they are buried too deeply in the ground and undeveloped. In the first nine months of 2005, Tajikistan extracted only 23.8 million cu m of natural gas, which is 15% less than the same period last year.