Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline to supply gas to the country’s South as early as this year: Oil Minister

The first part of the Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent gas pipeline will be commissioned in October 2013, Newskaz.ru reports, citing the country’s Minister of Oil and Gas Sauat Mynbayev. “The construction is under way (…) in line with the schedule. When it comes to the time frameworks, the pipeline is made of two stages. The first one runs from Bozoi to Shymkent, and the second 311-km-long segment is from Beineu to Bozoi [to be commissioned in 2016]”, the Minister elaborated. He added that “through constructing the gas pipeline from Bozoi to Shymkent it will be possible to supply gas to the South Kazakhstan from gas fields located near Aktobe”. The overall 1500-km-long gas pipeline will run across Mangistau, Aktobe, Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan oblasts. The Government has repeatedly said the construction is worth $3.6 billion. The project is strategically important for Kazakhstan. When completed, the gas pipeline will be supplying gas to 577 villages and settlements, with some of them still having no access to gas supplies. Now the South of Kazakhstan is restricted by insufficient gas supplies from the neighboring Uzbekistan and the poor state of and shortage of gas pipes. “We have received confirmation from the Chinese side that the Bozoi – Shymkent gas pipeline much awaited in the South of Kazakhstan will be completed this coming October. It is a vital piece of news for the Southern regions of Kazakhstan”, Tengrinews.kz reported earlier, citing President Nazarbayev as saying during his visit to China April 6.