The progress of gasification of settlements of Kazakhstan was considered at the Government session chaired by Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov.

Minister of Energy Bolat Akchulakov said that at the end of 2022, the overall level of gasification of the republic was 59% (of the population), respectively, 11.6 million people have access to gas. This year, 73.9 billion tenge is provided for the implementation of 76 projects, which will provide 55 more settlements with a population of 160 thousand people. At the end of 2023, the level of gas supply in the country is expected to be 60%.

According to him, further gasification of Akmola and North Kazakhstan regions is proposed through the construction of stages 2 and 3 of the pipeline "Saryarka" after increasing the capacity of the gas pipeline "Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent". For gasification of eastern regions of the country the Ministry considers two options: construction of a gas pipeline along the route Kostanay - Astana - Pavlodar - Semey - Ust-Kamenogorsk and import of gas from the Russian Federation under the Road Map for cooperation in the gas industry.

At the same time, according to the Minister, a number of systematic measures to increase the resource base are taken against the background of growth in consumption of marketable gas in the domestic market. In addition, work is underway to remove barriers to connecting citizens to gas networks: the number of required documents has been reduced and an electronic platform is being introduced to automate the process of connecting to gas, etc.

Akims of Almaty region Marat Sultangaziyev, Karaganda region Yermaganbet Bulekpayev and Zhambyl region Nurzhan Nurzhigitov reported on the ongoing work in the regions.

The Prime Minister stressed that the demand for clean energy resources, especially gas, is growing every year worldwide. In Kazakhstan, this issue is also relevant, given the demographic growth, the commissioning of industrial facilities and gasification of the private sector. Thus, if in 2020, the volume of gas consumption in the country amounted to about 17 billion cubic meters, by the end of 2022 it is already more than 19 billion cubic meters. In the current year, gas consumption growth is expected to reach 20 billion cubic meters.

Alikhan Smailov reminded that the Head of the State set a task to bring the gasification of the country to 60%. In general more than 1800 settlements with population more than 11.8 million people should be connected to the gas fuel.

"This order of the Ministry of Energy, KazMunaiGaz QazaqGaz companies together with the akims should be executed in full," he pointed out.

However, the Head of the Government noted that the main gas pipeline "Saryarka", along which the relevant infrastructure is connected and the necessary start-up facilities are installed, was built back in 2019. However, the pace of connecting the population of the capital, Karaganda and Akmola regions to the long-awaited gas remains at a rather low level.

"Residents of these regions complain about the lack of gas distribution networks, red tape with permits and expensive connection. And this applies not only to the central regions, but also to all other regions that already have gas," Alikhan Smailov said.

As an example, he cited the village Bigash in Almaty region, where residents have been promised gas for 10 years. At the same time, the population of the village of Alshaly in Tolebi district of Turkestan region also expects "blue fuel" for several years.

According to the Head of Government, the village of Zelenoye in West Kazakhstan region (5 km from Uralsk) had gas in 2014, but so far only administrative buildings are connected.

"In addition to rural settlements, cities also have problems with gas supply. As a result, as you can see, Astana is still "drowning in smog" and leads the world rankings for air pollution. The construction deadline for the new combined-cycle plant at CHP-2 in Almaty has been pushed back. Regional Akims and QazaqGaz need to take these issues under special control," Alikhan Smailov pointed out.

The Prime Minister added that it's also time to determine and put an end to the issue of gasification of the northern and eastern regions of the country. In this regard, the Ministry of Energy in cooperation with the fund Samruk-Kazyna was tasked to prepare a final decision by 1 May.

According to Alikhan Smailov, high wear and tear of gas infrastructure is no less important issue.

"You all see the situation in Ekibastuz and Rudny because of the high wear and tear of the heating networks. At the same time the gas networks are under higher pressure and bear higher risks. The main mass of the main gas pipelines was built more than 30 years ago and requires large capital investments for safe operation," the Prime Minister stressed.

He added that control of this issue by the Ministries of Energy, for Emergency Situations, regional Akims and QazaqGaz should be constant, and issues of modernization and timely repair of gas infrastructure should be a priority.