Kazakhstan has extended a ban on export of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by road for another three years.

Citing the Kazakh Energy Ministry’s press center, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on October 13 that Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister announced a ban on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) exports by order due to the disproportionate difference between approved domestic prices and export prices.  

According to KAZINFORM, the Kazakh Energy Minister on October 7 decreed to impose a ban on export of LPG to CIS by road for a period of three years.  Previously, the same ban was imposed in 2017 for a term of three years. 

The decree is reportedly purposed to prevent illegal export of liquefied petroleum gas and prevent its deficit domestically due to incommensurable discrepancy in internal approved prices and export prices.

Tajikistan has been importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Kazakhstan, which provides the bulk of Tajikistan’s LNG imports (93 percent of the country’s overall LNG imports).

Tajikistan receives deliveries of liquefied gas by road and rail.  More than 60 percent of the country's motor vehicles use liquefied natural gas as fuel.  

Fifteen companies are now engaged in supplying LNG to Tajikistan.  The largest of them are Alat (18 percent of LNG deliveries), Temur Oil (11 percent), Ghairat (10 percent), and Octane Service (10 percent).    

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases used as fuel in heating appliances, cooking equipment, and vehicles.  It is increasingly used as an aerosol propellant and a refrigerant, replacing chlorofluorocarbons in an effort to reduce damage to the ozone layer. When specifically used as a vehicle fuel it is often referred to as autogas.  Varieties of LPG bought and sold include mixes that are mostly propane (C3H8), mostly butane (C4H10), and, most commonly, mixes including both propane and butane. In the northern hemisphere winter, the mixes contain more propane, while in summer, they contain more butane.  

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport.  The gas produced from hydrocarbon deposits typically contains a wide range of hydrocarbon products, which usually includes methane (CH4), ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10). All these products have wide-ranging boiling points and also different heating values allowing different routes to commercialization and also different uses.