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.