First Section of Phase-II Kazakhstan-China Gas Pipeline Becomes Operational

On September 7, the first section (Bozoy-Shymkent) of Phase-II Kazakhstan-China Gas Pipeline was put into operation.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev attended the commissioning ceremony in Astana, Capital City of Kazakhstan. Extending warm congratulations on the occasion, they pressed the start button together and announced the pipeline’s completion and operation. CNPC Chairman Zhou Jiping was present at the ceremony. He also attended the founding ceremony of the China-Kazakhstan Entrepreneurs Committee. Prior to the commissioning ceremony in the presence of the two countries’ leaders, Mr. Zhou Jiping and KazMunaiGas Chairman Sauat Mynbayev, on behalf of the two companies respectively, signed a comprehensive planning agreement on strategic cooperation and a confirmation agreement for CNPC to hold shares in the Kashagan project.

In August 2007, CNPC and KazMunaiGas signed the agreement on construction and operation of the Kazakhstan-China Gas Pipeline. In 2008, the JV Asia Gas Pipeline LLP (AGP) was formed to be in charge of the construction and operation management of the pipeline. The Phase-I project, i.e., the section of the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline within the territory of Kazakhstan, has a total length of 1,302 kilometers. Line A and Line B of the project have already been in operation, with a designed annual deliverability of 30 billion cubic meters. Line C, running in parallel to Line A and Line B, boasts an annual deliverability of 25 billion cubic meters, and is planned to be completed by the end of 2013.

The Phase-II pipeline starts from Beyneu of Mangystau Province in Kazakhstan, and will be connected to the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline at Shymkent of South Kazakhstan Province. This 1,454km-long pipeline is designed to transport 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year and has a potential of up to 15 billion cubic meters per year.

The Phase-II project consists of two sections. The first section, 1,143 kilometers long from Bozoy of Aktobe Province to Shymkent, is now ready for natural gas delivery after construction started in July 2012. The second section, 311 kilometers long from Beyneu to Bozoy, is expected to be completed in 2015.

Running across 14 cities in Southern Kazakhstan, the pipeline will help meet gas demand in the region and deliver gas to China via Central Asia–China Gas Pipeline when gas deliverability rises in the future. Invested, constructed and operated collaboratively, the pipeline is another major achievement made by the Chinese and Kazakh sides to benefit the peoples and promote economic and social development of the two countries.

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LNG World News Staff, September 10, 2013; Image: CNPC