They said gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan have been cut to minimum due to the debt for previous supplies. According to rough estimates, Kyrgyzstan owes Uzbekistan about 400,000 U.S. dollars for gas. On Saturday, practically all apartment houses in Bishkek and other cities in the north of the country were left without gas. Thermal power plants are receiving gas in small amounts, which is barely enough to keep apartments warm. The private sector have switched to electric heaters, but power substations go down as they are unable to cope with such load.
People make bonfires to keep themselves warm and cook food.
The government is now trying to find money to pay the debt. The gas price will be 50 dollars for 1,000 cubic meters, under an intergovernmental agreement on mutual payments in the transportation of cargo and the gas delivery this year, sources at the Tajik presidential press service told Itar- Tass on Friday. The agreement was signed in Dushanbe earlier on the same day on results of negotiations of Tajik and Uzbek expert teams led by Vice-Premiers Mirzosharif Islomiddinov and Lerik Akhmetov. The sides agreed to deliver the gas in payment for Uzbekistan's cargo transit and gas transportation via Tajikistan's Leninabad region, the sources said. Such a system of mutual offsets has existed in the relations of the two Central Asian republics for several years.