Kazakhstan starts up first phase of gas pipeline to China
ALMATY. Dec 14 (Interfax) - NGSK KazStroiService (KSS) announced the start of operations on the first strand of the Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline on Saturday.
"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 1067 mm in diameter and 650 km 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 November 30.
Initial capacity will be 4.5 billion cubic meters a year. Later, when the second strand is in service and seven compressor stations are in place, throughput will reach up to 30 bcm a year by the end of 2013.
Up to 13 bcm will be supplied to China in 2010, rising to 30 bcm by the end of 2013. Of the total, up to 10 bcm will be delivered to customers in southern Kazakhstan.
The Turkmenistan-China pipeline will include about 200 kilometers of pipeline 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 bcm of capacity running from the Uzbek-Kazakh border to the Kazakh-Chinese border; and a second phase with 10 bcm of capacity connecting the system with southern Kazakhstan on the route Beineu-Bozoi-Kyzylorda-Shymkent.
The Kazakh segment will be completed in June 2010.
The general contractors are KSS and CPPE (China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering).
KazTransGas, a subsidiary of KazMunayGas, and Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Company Ltd jointly set up Asian Gas Pipeline LLP to carry out the project in February 2008. The new company, which the two partners own 50-50, is based in Almaty.
Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline is owned by CNPC subsidiary CNODC and PetroChina.