Astana has offered Moscow an alternative route of natural gas supplies to China - transit through Kazakhstan, the head of the KazMunayGas company, Sauat Mynbayev, said.
According to him, it is possible to use the existing supply route from Russia to the south of Kazakhstan through the Bukhara-Ural and Bozoi-Shymkent pipelines.
Kazakhstan invites Gazprom to use the existing country’s infrastructure to export gas to China. At present, Gazprom supplies the southern regions of Kazakhstan through the Bukhara-Ural pipeline [since autumn 2014 the pipeline has been working in reverse regime], then the gas is pumped into the Bozoi-Shymkent pipeline, which is connected with the Central Asia-China main gas pipeline, through which Beijing receives gas from Turkmenistan.
"As for the possibility of gas supplies to China via this route, potentially, this interest definitely exists," Mynbayev told the Kommersant daily. Currently, due to low pressure in the pipe, gas from the Bozoi-Shymkent pipeline cannot be pumped to the Central Asia-China pipeline. However, Kazakhstan intends to boost the capacity of the Bozoi-Shymkent pipeline from 2.5 billion to 10 billion cubic meters by installing three compressor stations.
The director of the Center for Studies of World Energy Markets at the RAS Institute of Energy Research, Vyacheslav Kulagin, in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza expressed doubt that this proposal is attractive to Russia."When we talk about the route through Kazakhstan, the key question is the resource base. We were considering two routes in China - a signed contract on the 'Power of Siberia'. And, accordingly, its resource base is deposits in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, which is very far from Kazakhstan. The second project is 'Altai'. Its resource base is existing and newly developed fields in the north. In fact, the 'Altai' pipeline was almost the shortest," he said.The expert noted that "it's not very clear what the pros are of the route through Kazakhstan, except for the additional transit link for Russia." "From an economic point of view I can't see the attractiveness here, because, firstly, there are no existing pipelines which can be used for this purpose. It is not possible to save on design costs. Still, we have to implement and build new energy. The only thing you can call attractive is a possible slight variation of the 'Altai' pipeline and its passage through Kazakh territory, which helps to bypass the Altai Mountains and build it through flatter areas. But it requires more detailed understanding," Kulagin summed up.
The director of the Center for Studies of World Energy Markets at the RAS Institute of Energy Research, Vyacheslav Kulagin, in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza expressed doubt that this proposal is attractive to Russia.
"When we talk about the route through Kazakhstan, the key question is the resource base. We were considering two routes in China - a signed contract on the 'Power of Siberia'. And, accordingly, its resource base is deposits in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, which is very far from Kazakhstan. The second project is 'Altai'. Its resource base is existing and newly developed fields in the north. In fact, the 'Altai' pipeline was almost the shortest," he said.
The expert noted that "it's not very clear what the pros are of the route through Kazakhstan, except for the additional transit link for Russia." "From an economic point of view I can't see the attractiveness here, because, firstly, there are no existing pipelines which can be used for this purpose. It is not possible to save on design costs. Still, we have to implement and build new energy. The only thing you can call attractive is a possible slight variation of the 'Altai' pipeline and its passage through Kazakh territory, which helps to bypass the Altai Mountains and build it through flatter areas. But it requires more detailed understanding," Kulagin summed up.
