, March 27, Asia-Plus - Aleksey Miller, chairman of the board of Russia ’s Gazprom joint-stock company, is arriving in Dushanbe today afternoon for a short working visit.  

According to information from presidential press service, Aleksey Miller will meet with President Rahmonov tomorrow, March 28.   

During his stay in Dushanbe the Gazprom head also will meet with Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov and Energy Minister Jurabek Nurmahmadov.  

The source at the Ministry of Energy has told Asia-Plus that the sides are supposed to discuss possibilities of joint work to develop and operate Tajikistan ’s gas fields as well as financing of prospecting works and supply of special equipment to Tajikistan for prospecting for gas and boring.  

The Tajik side intends to offer to the “Gazprom” joint-stock company development of the gas fields Sargazon in Danghara (some 90 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe ) and Sariqamish in Shahrinav (35 kilometers west of Dushanbe ).  

Negotiations in the Ministry of Energy are supposed to result in signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the establishment of the Tajik-Russian joint venture for developing and operating gas and oil fields. 

According to expert estimates, the aggregate raw-materials resources of the oil and gas bearing areas in Tajikistan amount to about 1,000 billion tons of reference fuel.  However, production work at oil and gas fields require considerable expenditure, since hydrocarbon deposits occur at depths ranging from 6.5 to 8 km.