ASTANA, July 16. /TASS/. The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan plans that natural gas production in the republic will grow by 2.3% to 60.5 bln cubic meters this year, Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev said at the cabinet meeting.
"Gas production in the country is growing steadily in recent years. The production plan for 2024 stands at 60.5 bln cubic meters or 2.3% against the 2023 volume. Gas production in the first half of 2024 amounted to 30 bln cubic meters, which makes up 50% of the plan for 2024," the minister said.
Major fields - Karachaganak, Tengiz and Kashagan are set to give the bulk of incremental growth of gas production, Satkaliyev noted.
Efforts are underway for the full-fledged use of the gas transit potential of the country, the minister said. "Transit of Russian gas to the Republic of Uzbekistan was launched in October 2023. In 2023, 1.28 bln cubic meters were transported; we plan to increase this indicator to 3.8 bln cubic meters this year with subsequent growth to 11 bln cubic meters per year," he noted.
Transit of Turkmen and Uzbek gas to China shows steady growth, Satkaliyev stressed. Kazakhstan plans to increase such transit to 37.1 bln cubic meters, which is 1.5 bln cubic meters more as compared to the last year. Furthermore, the issue of ramping up Russian gas transit to Kyrgyzstan is at the discussion stage.