Kyrgyzstan will pay gas debts to Kazakhstan by end of spring

Kyrgyzstan is promising to pay all current gas debts to Kazakhstan and hoping for a new fuel supplies contract, Interfax-Kazakhstan reports. “Kyrgyzgas will pay all the current debts to Kazakhstan in the amount of $2 million by May 25,” Sapar Issakov, head of foreign policy and deputy head of Kyrgyzstan's Presidential Administration told the journalists. He also said that Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan authorities will be discussing possibilities of new gas supplies upon instructions of both presidents. For new supplies talks the countries have to define the amount of gas required for the coming heating season and set the price of the fuel. Issakov did not exclude that Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan could sign a new contract with the price of future supplies not exceeding the current level of $233 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas. According to preliminary information, Kyrgyzstan is going to negotiate supplies of up to 300 million cubic meters of gas from Kazakhstan. As for the multi-million debts of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan for unauthorized gas extraction, Issakov said that “a bilateral commission was created to perform its own investigation and present its results to the governments of both countries”. Ambassador of Kyrgyzstan to Kazakhstan Essengul Omuraliyev told the journalists that “there is a so-called delayed debt of $11.6 million between the countries. According to Kazakhstan party, these were the investments into a joint Kazakh-Kyrgyz company KyrKazGas, but Kyrgyzstan party stated that the money was never invested”. “A joint commission was made of law-enforcement authorities to investigate into this fact,” Omuraliyev said.