He said that Uztransgaz had agreed to supply 550 million cubic meters of gas to Tajikistan as a result of the first round of talks which ended in Tashkent. This amount is 100 million cubic meters of gas less than requested by Dushanbe, Shoimov said. He did not comment on the reason behind the reduction of amounts of gas supplies.

Touching upon the price of the Uzbek gas for Tajikistan, the Tajik side suggested lowering prices for gas during the talks.

This year Tajikistan paid US$145 for 1,000 cubic meters of Uzbek gas within the framework of the intergovernmental agreement, which is US$45 more compared with the price of 2007.

The representative of Tajikgas said that world prices for gas were reducing and the world gas monopolists were predicting a decrease in prices up to the level of 2007.

The leadership of Tajikgas hopes that Uzbekistan will make a decision about the price for gas in the nearest future.

At the same time, Tajikistan will get gas independence as early as in nearest years and will be able to export gas itself. At present time Russia’s Gazprom is developing four large promising gas fields here.

The Canadian company Tethys Petroleum Limited signed an agreement on development and rehabilitation of five gas deposits with the Tajik government.