Kazakh export plans affect regional producers, buyers

摘要

How Kazakhstan -- the second largest oil and gas producer in the former Soviet Union after Russia -- chooses to develop its gas resources and export infrastructure will affect both gas exports from other energy-producing countries of the FSU and European and Chinese plans for diversifying its natural gas supplies. This first part of two articles examines the various land pipeline projects designed to export Kazakh supplies. The deterioration of the Central Asia-Center (CAC) gas pipeline network and projected increases in gas output from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan require expansion of the CAC to 100 billion cu m/year from the current level of 54.8 billion cu m/year. Kazakhstan and China reached agreement Aug 18, 2007, to build and operate a new gas pipeline to China. The Western Kazakhstan-Western China gas pipeline will be 1,480 km long and have a 1,016-1,067-mm OD and a projected annual capacity of 10 billion cu m/year.