Kazakhstan Ups Exports to China
Kazakhstan increased gas exports to China by 29.3% year-on-year to 7.5bn m3 in 2019, the energy ministry announced December 18. But it fell short of the commitment to double exports. Wood Mackenzie has also recently expressed doubt that Kazakhstan would meet this commitment.
Kazakhstan’s overall gas exports also reached 19.5bn m3 in 2019, according to the energy ministry, only about 2.6% more than 2018.
Kazakhstan began gas exports to China in October 2017, with 1.1bn m3 flowing in 2017.
The ministry did n0t touch upon the country’s gas production level, but according to official statistics, it produced 46.3bn m3 gross January-October (inclusive), up by 1.5% year-on- year, of which 27.12bn m3 were sales gas. Its domestic consumption also increased by 3% year-on-year to 11.8bn m³. It is connecting more households to the grid, with about half the population now using gas.