Before November Kazakhstan to compensate Gazprom for 800 million cubic metres of earlier borrowed gas

Before November 2012 Kazakhstan will compensate Russia’s Gazprom for the earlier borrowed 800 million cubic metres of gas, KazTag reports, citing the country’s oil and gas minister Sauat Mynbayev as saying. “Kazakhstan borrowed about 800 million cubic metres of gas from Russia’s Gazprom last heating season. Since September 1 we have been working to reimburse the Company. Before November 1, 2012 the Kazakh side will pay off its debt”, he said at a government sitting September 4. “To secure stable gas supplies this coming heating season we have agreed with China, Russia’s Gazprom and Uzbekistan to borrow 1.2 billion cubic metres before December and another 700 million cubic metres for January, February and March 2013”, the minister said. According to him, respective agreements will be signed with China shortly. The Minister elaborated that Kazakhstan has to borrow gas from other neighboring nations as most of the country’s gas reserves are concentrated in the west. “There is no required infrastructure to transport gas from the west of the country. Beineu-Bozoi pipeline is under construction. We borrow gas from Uzbekistan while selling a similar volume to Russia; this makes the gas cheaper: if we bought gas from Uzbekistan it would cost $250 per 1 000 cubic metres. However, currently it costs $85”, Mr. Mynbayev told journalists on the sidelines of the government sitting.