Kazakhstan Starts Higher Exports to China
Kazakhstan began October 16 deliveries to China under a new 5bn m³/yr agreement, signed early October. The agreement is between state-run KazTransGas and PetroChina and marks a major increase in the present contract of under 0.5bn m³ in 2016, KazTransGas said October 3.
The energy minister of Kazakhstan Kanat Bozumbayev however said at the ceremony October 16 that this was just the start: "We have the technical capacity to supply even 10bn m³/yr.”
At the same time, the economy ministry released a report, saying that from January to the end of September, Kazakhstan increased total gas production by 15.8% to 39.163bn m³.
During that time, it produced 17.02bn m³ dry gas (10.2% growth year-on-year) as well as 22.144bn m³ of associated gas (20.5% growth year-on-year).
The country produced 3.5bn m³ associated gas from the Kashaghan oil field which re-opened in September 28, 2016. In full year 2016, the dry and associated gas production was 21.384bn m³ and 24.945bn m³ respectively – so a 2016 total of some 46.33bn m³.
Kazakhstan never releases the amount of sale gas production, but BP estimated that the figure stood at 19.9bn m³ in 2016. According to the recent 2017 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, the ministry’s gross gas figures suggest that a lot is used in oil field reinjection. Kazakhstan flared 2.67bn m³ in 2016 according to World Bank data, while its total CO2 emissions (including from coal) were 15.8 metric tons per capita.
Ilham Shaban