Aleksei Miller of Gazprom and Tajik Energy Minister Dzhurabek Nurmakhmadov signed a memorandum on cooperation in the energy sphere in Dushanbe. The document stipulates establishment of a joint venture to explore, produce, and sell Tajik gas. Interim reports indicate that 75% of the joint venture will belong to Gazprom and the rest to the government of Tajikistan. The joint venture will also reconstruct and modernize gas pipelines on the territory of Tajikistan and build new ones.

"Gazprom will invest about $6 million in the project in its initial stage. Sum total of investments will be announced in the nearest future," Miller said at the meeting with President Emomali Rakhmonov.

Tajik gas reserves amount to only about 800 billion cubic meters. Gazprom is permitted to develop gas fields in Sarikamysh, Rengan, and Sargazon (totalling 110 billion cubic meters), and Olimtoi that has to be explored yet. Gazprom's expansion into Tajikistan is not particularly promising from the economic standpoint, but political dividends are truly enormous. Nearly 90% of Tajikistan's needs are met by gas export from Uzbekistan these days, and official Dushanbe has aspired for ridding itself of the gas dependance on Uzbekistan for years. It follows that the project intended to develop Tajikistan's own gas resources will have a profound effect on the attitude of its government with regard to Russian investors. It is of paramount importance, particularly since several other joint projects are already under way in Tajikistan (like the one carried out by Russian Aluminium and Tajik Aluminium Factory).