Kazakhs Boost Flows for Own Gas to China
Kazakhstan's national gas transportation operator, KazTransGas(KTG), said it launched a gas compressor station November 29 that will provide the capacity to flow 4.7bn m3/yr gas of Kazakh gas to China.
The pipeline will transit gas from Bukhara to the Almaty and Almata regions, where the Central Asia-China pipeline is located, announced KTG, and its capacity can be boosted to 6bn m3/yr in future. Sources of the gas are Kazakhstan's Tengiz, Karachaganak, Kashagan and Zhanazhol oil fields.
Kazakhstan plans to develop all of these fields to boost both oil and associated gas, especially Tengiz, which the Chevron-led consortium Tengiz Chevroil (TCO) July 5 approved a $36.8bn plan to expand production.
KazMunaiGaz (KMG) has a deal with China's CNPC to supply the gas, but KTG is responsible for gas transportation.
The previous infrastructures in the Central Asia-China pipeline were primarily designed for transiting Turkmen and Uzbek gas through the three branches of Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China route, and only a small amount of Kazakh gas was previously transported to China this way.
Some gas produced from Kazakh fields will continue to be consumed in Almaty and Astana urban areas.
The official ceremony of commissioning the compressor stations No. 4 and 8 of ะก line of Kazakhstan-China pipeline was held in Sep.30, 2016. With construction of four new compressors, the capacity of three lines of that pipeline should rise from 30bn m3/yr to its final capacity of 55bn m3/yr, Kazakh TV reported.
KazTransGas CEO Rustam Suleimanov (left) greets EBRD first Vice President Phil Bennett. The two signed an agreement October 26 that included improving gas compressor efficiency (Photo credit: KTG)
Kazakhstan’s 2016 gas output fell by 0.79% to 33.5bn m³ through the end of September government data shows, but the output should rise sharply with the start of associated gas production from the Kashagan field October 14, when the field resumed operations after a three-year outage.
According to Kazakhstan's energy ministry, Kashagan's oil output reached 75,000 b/d but is expected to double by end-2016. Currently about 2.5-3mn m3/d associated gas is produced from this field, but Kazakhstan plans to increase oil output to 370,000 b/d and accordingly plans to start re-injection of gas to into Kashagan by mid-2017.
Azerbaijan desk