Kazakhstan And Russia Plan To Build New Oil Pipeline To Boost Shipments

Kazakhstan's energy minister said on Tuesday that Kazakhstan and Russia have agreed on a path for a future gas pipeline to boost shipments between the two nations and to China.

The pipeline would assist Russia, which has been sanctioned by the West for its invasion of Ukraine, in increasing sales of its oil and commodities in Asia while also maintaining Kazakhstan's supply security in its central, northern, and eastern areas.

"The issue of building a gas pipeline from Russia through Kazakhstan's northern territories to China is being discussed," Kazakhstan's energy minister Almasadam Satkaliyev said. "The route has been preliminarily determined, and the conditions for the construction of this gas pipeline are being discussed."

Russia has been in talks with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan about forming a gas union to promote supplies between the three nations and to other energy importers, including China.

To compensate for the loss of the European market, Moscow is strengthening trade and political connections with Asia, which has emerged as the primary buyer of Russian oil, a significant source of cash for the Kremlin.

Russia has been in talks with Beijing about building a second pipeline, the Power of Siberia 2, with an annual capacity of 50 billion cubic metres (bcm), roughly equal to the 55 bcm capacity of the damaged and idled Nord Stream 1 undersea pipeline to Germany.

The talks have been contentious, and no agreement on the petrol price has been reached.

Last year, the Kremlin-controlled Gazprom agreed to supply CNPC with 10 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Russia's far eastern island of Sakhalin.

Russia now supplies China through only one route, the Power of Siberia pipeline, which is anticipated to achieve full annual capacity of 38 billion cubic metres by 2025.