BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 24
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
Supplies of Uzbek natural gas to the Sughd region of Tajikistan have resumed after a ten-year hiatus, Trend reports with reference to Tajik media.
According to information, a gas pipeline was launched in Sughd region of Tajikistan on December 23. The main supplier of Uzbek natural gas to the region is Sugdiyongaz Company.
In early October, the director of the company, Abdulhakim Sufiyev, said that according to preliminary estimates, one cubic meter of natural gas imported from Uzbekistan will cost up to two Tajikistani somoni ($0.2).
Sufiev said that the Uzbek side is ready to sell 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas to Tajikistan at a price of $130. Ten years ago, the price of the same amount of fuel amounted to $340- $360.
“At the first stage, natural gas will be supplied to industrial enterprises,” Sufiyev noted.
“In Khujand, the administrative center of the Sughd region, there are more than 150 industrial enterprises, most of which operate on electricity and coal. About 50 percent of them are ready to start working on natural gas. This will be of great help to these enterprises from an economic point of view,” he said.
It was noted that more than 850 kilometers of gas pipelines of various lengths have been laid on the territory of the Sughd region, of which more than 60 kilometers have been repaired and put into operation so far, mainly in the territory of Khujand.
“After the pipes are repaired, it is expected that natural gas from Uzbekistan will be supplied to the cities of Khujand, Guliston, Buston, Istiklol and the Bobojon Gafurov regions,” Sufiyev stressed.
In 2012, Uzbekistan suspended gas supplies to Tajikistan. Prior to that, Tajikistan bought blue fuel from Tashkent at a price of $370 per thousand cubic meters, which experts called "politicized". After Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power, the situation changed - in the spring of 2018, Uzbekistan resumed natural gas supplies to Tajikistan through the Muzrabad-Dushanbe gas pipeline with a capacity of 125,000 cubic meters per hour. During the year, then 54 million cubic meters of gas were imported for the amount of $6.9 million.
According to the Tajiktransgaz OJSC, in the first half of 2020 Tajikistan imported natural gas from Uzbekistan in the amount of 144 million cubic meters worth $17 million.
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