.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
Heavy-Handed Politics

"€œGod willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world
without the United States and Zionism."€ -- Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad

Friday, September 16, 2005

AS WINTER APPROACHES, KYRGYZSTAN FACES TOUGH CHOICES IN ITS ENERGY SECTOR

Following this summer's Andijan refugee crisis, when the Kyrgyz government transferred 440 Uzbek citizens to a third country to satisfy its obligations as a UN member, official Tashkent canceled a bilateral agreement on supplying 350 million cubic meters of natural gas to Kyrgyzstan. Having a protracted crisis in the energy sector, which in past years has brought significant losses due to poor and corrupt management, Kyrgyzstan is facing a financial and logistical stalemate in importing gas and exporting electricity as winter approaches.

After Uzbekistan curbed its gas supply agreement, Kyrgyzstan had to rely on Kazakhstan's KazTransGaz to re-sell the Uzbek gas for higher prices. As one of the conditions, KazTransGaz demanded that Kyrgyzstan repay a three-year debt amounting to $17.5 million. Since the beginning of August, Kyrgyzstan overpaid 20% of the normal gas price with KazTransGaz, sliding further into a budget deficit. [Read More.]

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home