Wednesday, June 27, 2012 -
The price of propane gas in Tajikistan has dropped by more than one-quarter over the last three months as a result of falling international oil prices, Tajik energy officials said on Wednesday.
The cost of a liter (0.26 gallons) of liquefied gas fell from $0.73 in March 2012 to $0.61 at the turn of this month, and continued the downward slide to $0.55 this week.
That amounts to a price decrease of 25.7 percent in the second quarter of 2012.
Ministry of Energy and Industries official Yormahmad Begahmadov attributed the slip to a corresponding global decrease in oil prices.
“The price of one barrel of oil in world stock markets has fallen from US$126 in March to US$94,” the Asia-Plus news agency cited the official as saying.
According to his figures, oil prices dipped by 25 percent over the same time period.
Tajikistan purchases its liquefied gas imports entirely from Kazakhstan.
Its propane gas imports for the first five months of this year amounted to 43,584 tons, a 73 percent increase compared with the same period in 2011, according to official statistics.
But shipments of oil products to Tajikistan in the same period of this year dropped by 30 percent to 148,595 tons. Aviation fuel imports also dipped, the official figures show.
The bulk of Tajikistan’s fuel imports are provided by its three regional neighbors Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Russia and Belarus.