Monday, May 14, 2012 -
Russia is mulling a request by Kyrgyzstan to boost the volume of duty-free petroleum products by 30 percent, a top Kyrgyz oil trader said on Monday.
Kyrgyzstan’s Association of Oil Traders President Zhumakadyr Akeneyev said that Moscow will announce its decision by the end of May.
“At a recent inter-governmental commission, we asked [Russia] to increase the volume, first by 7 percent, then 30 percent,” the KyrTAG news agency reported Akeneyev as saying.
The two countries earlier agreed that Kyrgyzstan would receive around 850 tons of tax-free fuels and lubricants in 2012, he noted.
But in response to Bishkek’s recent request for more, Russian suppliers signed a protocol of intent to provide a larger but unspecified volume of quota-free petroleum products.
Kyrgyzstan has already received 400 tons of its 2012 quota, leaving another 450 tons to the end of the year.
The Central Asian republic foresees greater a need for petroleum, oil, and lubricants for its growing economy and to stockpile reserves.
But Moscow has also expressed annoyance that Bishkek is not doing enough to stop the illegal re-exporting of fuel across its poorly guarded border into neighboring Tajikistan.