Azerbaijan, Baku, April 2 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Kazakhstan will continue supplying gas to Kyrgyzstan only if the Kyrgyz party has repaid all its debt , Nurbol Sultan, Director General of Kazakh National gas transporting company KazTransGas told Trend via e-mail on Wednesday.
"The current contract between KazTransGas and Kyrgyzgaz on gas sale from September 21, 2011 expires on April 30, 2012. However, KazTransGas is ready to consider the possibility of additional agreement on gas supply to the north regions of Kyrgyzstan only in the case of full repayment of the debt," Sultan said.
Otherwise, KazTransGas will stop gas supplies to the north of Kyrgyzstan .
On Wednesday morning 24.kg reported with the reference to Deputy General Director of the Kyrgyz gas company Kyrgyzgaz Eugene Orlenko that Kyrgyzstan plans to reach an agreement with Kazakhstan on purchase of 90 million cubic meters of gas in May-August at the price envisaged by the previous contract.
As KazTransGas' head told Trend, taking into consideration the great receivable accounts of Kyrgyzgaz, as well as receiving its money, KazTransGas does not exclude the possibility of gas price increase for Kyrgyzstan. The amount of extra pay will directly depend on the amount of repayment.
"This measure will allow Kyrgyzgaz to gradually pay off the existing debt to Kazakhstan," Nurbol Sultan said.
According to KazTranGas, Kyrgyzstan's debt for gas to KazTranGas amounted to $7.6 million as of April 23. Moreover, Kyrgyzgas should repay $27.3 million to Kazakhstan for gas transportation, investments and non-contractual gas consumption.