Kazakhstan Completes Welding of Major Pipeline
The 1,061-km Saryarka gas pipeline is now welded and should be ready for operations early next year, state-run KazMunayGas (KMG) announced September 30. The project will supply the domestic market where only about 47% of the population has access to the grid.
The $1bn project will supply 2.2bn m3/yr gas to 1.7mn residents and industry including power plants, KMG said. Just over 70 TW/hr of the 107 TWh/yr of electricity generation in Kazakhstan comes from coal-fired power plants. KMG says that using gas will cut carbon emissions by 35,000 metric ton/yr and coal use will fall by 650,000 mt/yr.
Kazakhstan produces 47mn ton/yr of coal, almost all of which is used domestically. Its CO2 emissions stood at 293mn mt in 2018, of which 180mn mt came from coal, according to analysis by Global Carbon Project, a research arm of Future Earth. The UK major BP puts Kazakhstan’s 2018 sale gas production at 24.4bn m3.