The authorities of Kazakhstan continue negotiations with Russia on possible gas infrastructure development of the northern and eastern regions of the republic. This was announced by Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan Bolat Akchulakov at a briefing on Friday.
"We are still negotiating now," Akchulakov said when asked about negotiations with the Russian Federation on gas infrastructure development of the northern and eastern regions.
He said there are several options for gas infrastructure development of Kazakhstan's northeastern and eastern regions. "As a working option, it [gas pipeline] goes through Barnaul, most likely, then to the north of our territory and further branching between Pavlodar, Ust-Kamenogorsk, Semey and so on. As an option, it could be used for transit, but these negotiations have not been completed," said the minister.
He noted that the final cost of the project has not yet been calculated.
"Technically, we assume that we need a pipe which will allow pumping about 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year for gas infrastructure development of the north-east and the east of the country. In case we are interested in additional volumes of gas supplies to the South, we could consider a more powerful pipeline, say, more than 20-30 billion cubic meters. But it is a matter of negotiations," specified Akchulakov.
Earlier Akchulakov reported that the authorities of the republic were considering several options for gas infrastructure development of the northern and eastern regions of the country. Among them, an option of possible construction of gas pipelines from Russia was discussed. Gazprom and QazaqGaz were evaluating the corresponding project.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: btr/Creative Commons 2.5
Based on materials from TASS