Uzbekistan To Halve Energy Supply To Tajikistan - Gas Company
"The principal cause is increasing debt for received gas which is already $18 million. Part of the debt - $8 million - is from the first month of this year of year," a company spokesman told AFP.
"Within a week Uzbekistan will gradually reduce gas deliveries. If in the beginning of the week Tajikistan received 45,000 cubic meters a day, from now on, only 20,000 cubic meters", he said.
An impoverished central Asian state with a population of 7.5 million, Tajikistan is caught in an energy crisis.
The government has implemented an energy rationing scheme, leaving the country with a severe energy shortage.
Even in some areas in and around the capital Dushanbe, electricity is only available for two hours a day or less, and gas is only available to those able to afford it.
Tajikistan depends on Uzbekistan for 95% of its natural gas, which is the main supplier of natural gas to neighboring countries.
The two countries have long been at loggerheads over several issues, including water and energy supplies in addition to long-standing cultural strains.
Tajikistan has been buying Uzbek gas at a rate of $240 per 1,000 cubic meters, and had planned to purchase more than 500 million cubic meters this year.
The Tajik state energy firm blamed nonpayment by satellite companies into central coffers for the accumulating debt to Uzbekistan.
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Publié le 12 Février 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones
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