The volume of gas being pumped through the Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline capacity is to be almost doubled from 30 to 55bn m³ a year, Astana’s Deputy Minister of Energy Magzum Mirzagaliyev said yesterday, in an undertaking fully funded by foreign investments that is expected to create more than 14 thousand jobs during construction and a further thousand over the longer term.
Domestic pipeline ahead of schedule
The state-run energy concern KazTransGas last month officially opened the new Beineu-Shymkent-Bozoi gas pipeline designed to secure gas supplies from the country’s western gas fields to the south of the country, five months ahead of schedule and in time for winter. “The pipeline is historic in its significance, because it combines all gas pipelines of the country into a single gas transportation system,” KazTransGas, chairman Kairat Sharipbayev said. “It allows us to diversify gas transportation throughout Kazakhstan, and completely eliminates our dependence on imported gas.” The new pipeline will also bring gas to an additional 577 settlements in the south of the country which is home to more than half the population he added.