Kazakhstan Eyes Power of Siberia-2
Kazakhstan has asked Russian gas giant Gazprom if the Power of Siberia-2 pipeline could cross its territory on its way to China and also carry Kazakh gas. Prime minister Askar Mamin said November 25 that Kazakhstan was awaiting a response.
Gazprom is preparing to start gas exports through Power of Siberia to China on December 2, 2019 in a restricted volume initially and to raise the volume to the contractual level of 38bn m3/yr over a few years. The pipeline will deliver gas from giant fields in eastern Siberia to the border crossing near Blagoveshchensk.
However, the sides also have been discussing another pipeline, Power of Siberia-2, to supply an additional 30bn m3/yr through the so-called western route, carrying western Siberian gas. It is not clear whether the sides have reached an agreement given the low LNG price, but China has previously announced that the Russian pipeline gas price is even competitive against central Asian gas.
The Central Asian-China (CAC) pipeline starts at Gedaim on the border of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, running through central Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to finish at Horgos in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Its line A became operational in December 2009 and now there are three lines.
Last year, China imported 5.4bn m³ from Kazakhstan, 33.3bn m3 from Turkmenistan and 6.3bn m3 from Uzbekistan through the CAC pipeline, according to BP 2019 Statistical Review of World Energy.
Kazakhstan has committed to export 10bn m3 gas to China in 2019, though Wood Mackenzie recently expressed doubt that Kazakhstan would meet this commitment.