Uzbekistan, Tajikistan discuss gas supplies for 2010.

DUSHANBE, December 23 (Itar-Tass) - The volume and price of Uzbek gas supplies to Tajikistan top the agenda of the talks in Tashkent between the two countries' economic entities.

The Tajik delegation is led at the instruction of Prime Minister Akil
Akilov by the director-general of Tajiktransgaz state-run company,
Saidmamad Sharofutdinov, the government's press service told Itar-Tass on
Wednesday.
Tajikistan is interested in keeping the current volumes and price of
gas - around 250-300 million cubic meters at 240 U.S. dollars per 1,000
cubic meters. Dushanbe also hopes to persuade Tashkent to refuse from the
gas prepayment system in 2010.
Over the past several years Uzbekistan, domestic gas export monopolist
partner of Tajikistan, reduced supplies by more than two-fold referring to
"chronic indebtedness" of Tajik consumers.
Along with this Dushanbe hopes that "its gas dependence" from
Tashkent will end within several years following Tajikistan's development
of its own oil and gas deposits.
At present, Russia's gas giant Gazprom that won the Tajik government's
licenses for the development of four big fields is actively operating in
the Central Asian republic.

-0-isk/gor