DUSHANBE, June 10, 2011, Asia-Plus -- Top manager of open joint-stock company, Gazpromneft-Tajikistan, which is an affiliate of Russia’s state-controlled gas company Gazprom, Farhod Mirzoyev, considers that the high-octane gasoline delivery situation may improve in Tajikistan only in the second half of July.

“In May, Russia restricted high-octane gasoline exports and they practically stopped shipping 92-octane, 95-octane and 98-octane gasoline,” said Mirzoyev, “The situation will not change considerably in June.  Our specialists expect the situation to change for better in the second half of July.”

Mirzoyev noted that there were no any problems with shipping 80-octane gasoline and liquefied gas.

The Gazpromneft-Tajikistan head stressed that export duty on oil products had been raised not only for Tajikistan, “tariffs on gasoline exports have been raised for all countries that are not member nations of the Customs Union, except Kyrgyzstan.”

Mirzoyev said that in May, Gazpromneft-Tajikistan accounted for 82 percent of Tajikistan’s fuel market, while in 2010, it accounted for only 44 percent.  According to him, the company’s share in diesel fuel deliveries to the country increased from 12 percent in January to 20 percent in May, while its share in liquefied gas shipments decreased from 17 percent last year to 7 percent in May.   

We will recall that in May Russia increased tariffs for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan but later waived the new tariffs for Kyrgyzstan.

Tajikistan was exempted from paying Russian tariffs on oil and gasoline exports from 1995-2010.  When Russia cancelled Tajikistan''s tax exemption on May 1, 2010, Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov sent a letter to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin asking for the tax-free status to be restored.  Afterward, working groups from the two sides held several rounds of negotiations on this subject.