CAPITAL: Dushanbe

MONETARY UNIT: Tajik ruble

REFINING CAPACITY: None

OIL PRODUCTION: 1,000 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 12 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 200 bcf

Tajikistan has the lowest per capita gross domestic product in the former Soviet Union.

A civil war between Islamic conservatives and the secular government lasted from 1992 through 1997. Following a peace agreement between the United Tajik Opposition and the government of President Emomali Rakhmonov in June 1997, however, a modest recovery began.

Economy, government

Tajikistan concluded a loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund shortly after the peace agreement. The country`s real GDP grew 5.3% in 1998 and was projected to maintain modest real growth of about 4% during 1999.

Tajikistan`s economy is concentrated in a small number of industries, mainly cotton, aluminum, and hydroelectricity. The Tursanzade aluminum smelting plant is the world`s largest such facility

.

Upstream developments

Tajikistan produced an estimated 1,000 b/d of crude oil in 1999 and consumed a total of 29,000 b/d of petroleum products.

Because Tajikistan does not have a domestic refinery, all petroleum products must be imported. Other FSU countries account for more than 97% of Tajikistan`s oil products imports, with Uzbekistan supplying more than 70%.

Tajikistan has natural gas reserves of only 200 bcf and only minor domestic production. It thus relies heavily on imports of natural gas from neighboring Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Transportation

Pipelines run from Uzbekistan to Dushanbe and through northern Tajikistan. Total Tajik consumption of natural gas in 1997 was 40 bcf. Uzbekistan had a barter arrangement with Tajik authorities under which gas is supplied in exchange for the use of a rail transport corridor across northern Tajikistan.