Wednesday, June 20, 2012 -
Consumers in cash-strapped Kyrgyzstan pay more for their natural gas than any other former Soviet country, a senior energy official said Wednesday.
“Kyrgyzstan has the highest gas prices in the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States],” the independent local news agency 24.kg reported Eugene Orlenko, deputy director of state-run energy firm Kyrgyzgas, as saying.
The Commonwealth of Independent States is an 11-nation alliance of post-Soviet republics.
Orlenko made that comparison at a panel discussion in the capital Bishkek on the theme, ‘Mutual responsibility between fuel and energy companies and consumers’.
The national gas company director attributed to high cost of fuel to Kyrgyzstan’s reliance on gas imports for 92 percent of its consumption.
Today, the government pays an average price of $246 per cubic meter compared with just $42 in 2005, he said.
“We buy gas from Uzbekistan for $290 per 1,000 cubic meters, and $224 from Kazakhstan,” he said, the 24.kg news agency reported.
He concluded that the end price to consumers is 31 U.S. cents per cubic meter.
Kyrgyzgaz owes $3,350,000 to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan for gas imports, he added.
Orlenko suggested that Kyrgyzgas may reduce the price of gas to domestic consumers in the fourth quarter of this year, so long as the current slide in global oil prices continues.
The price of gas is tied to oil prices.
The official noted that the national energy company climbed out of the red last year to achieve a profit of $487,000. It hopes to increase that trend by reaching $635,000 in 2012.