.Uzbekistan cuts household gas to Tajikistan over heavy debts.

29/9 Tass 390

DUSHANBE, September 29 (Itar-Tass) - Uzbekistan's state-run company
Uztransgaz cut household gas supplies to neighboring Tajikistan on Tuesday
over multi-million debts, a Tajiktransgaz official told Itar-Tass.

The top management of Tajikistan's state-owned gas company left for
Tashkent to hold urgent talks.
Tajikistan's debt to Uzbekistan exceeds 18 million U.S. dollars. Over
the past five months Tashkent received "no coin" from its consumers.
Warning to close gas taps it even reduced volumes of gas supplies three
times, the official said.
At present, Tajikistan's gas production will be only enough to meet
the demands of Tajik Aluminium Company, he said.
Uztransgaz has been the only supplier of household gas to Tajikistan
since the Soviet era exporting 500-600 million cubic meters on the average
to the neighboring republic. Recently Tashkent more than doubled the gas
export price to 240 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.
Along with this Tajikistan hopes to break free from its dependence on
Uzbek gas through the development of its promising gas fields. Four of
Tajikistan's ten large gas fields are being developed by Russia's gas
monopoly Gazprom.