Kazakhstan starts first phase of gas pipeline to China (repeat)
Almaty. December 15. INTERFAX - NGSK KazStroiService (KSS) announced the start of operations on the first phase of the Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline on Dec. 12.
"The Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline is part of the Central Asia Gas Pipeline project (CAGP), which will transport Turkmen natural gas to China via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan," KSS said in a statement.
The first phase of the Kazakhstan-China system includes two parallel pipelines, each 1,067 millimeters in diameter and 650 kilometers long. The pipeline starts at the Uzbek-Kazakh border and ends at the Kazakh-Chinese border near the village of Lugovoye.
Kazakhstan began filling the pipeline with gas on Nov. 30.
Initial capacity will be 4.5 billion cubic meters a year. Eventually, when the second strand is in service and seven compressor stations are in place, throughput will reach up to 30 billion cubic meters a year by the end of 2013.
China will receive up to 13 billion cubic meters a year in 2010, which will be increased to 30 billion cubic meters a year by the end of 2013. Of the total, up to 10 billion cubic meters will be delivered to customers in southern Kazakhstan.
The Turkmenistan-China pipeline will be more than 7,000 kilometers long, of which about 200 kilometers will be in Turkmenistan, 550 kilometers in Uzbekistan, over 1,300 kilometers in Kazakhstan, and about 8,000 kilometers in China.
The Kazakh segment of the pipeline includes two phases: a first phase with 40 billion cubic meters of capacity running from the Uzbek-Kazakh border to the Kazakh-Chinese border; and a second phase with 10 billion cubic meters of capacity connecting the system with southern Kazakhstan on the route Beineu-Bozoi-Kyzylorda-Shymkent.
The Kazakh segment will be completed in June 2010.
For the purpose of the project, KazTransGas and Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Co. Ltd. established on a parity basis Asian Gas Pipeline LLP in February last year which is based in Almaty.
The shareholders of Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline are CNPC subsidiary China National Oil and Gas Exploration and Development Corp. and PetroChina Co. Ltd.
-JH