The Government session chaired by Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov considered the issue related to the development of the gas industry. Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov reported on production forecasts, infrastructure modernisation, social initiatives and digitalisation measures.

According to the Ministry of Energy, gas production in 2024 was 59 billion m3, the production plan for 2025 is 62.8 billion m3. Gas production for the first quarter of 2025 was 17.2 billion m3. The main increase in gas production is envisaged at the expense of large fields Karachaganak, Tengiz and Kashagan. Marketable gas production in 2024 totalled 28.7 billion m3. The production plan for 2025 is 29.4 billion m3. In the first quarter of 2025, 7.3 billion m3 was produced. At the same time, 21.2bn m3 was supplied for the needs of the domestic market in 2024. The forecast consumption volume for 2025 is about 21.3 billion m3.

The volume of liquefied petroleum gas production for 2024 was 1.7 million tonnes. The plan for 2025 is 1.7 million tonnes and at the end of the first quarter of 2025 about 0.5 million tonnes or 107.7% compared to 2024 were produced.

The Minister also noted geological exploration works, which NC QazaqGaz JSC is actively conducting on 15 areas included in the Programme of management of the state subsoil fund. Agreements have been concluded with a number of investors, including Chevron and KazAzot LLP. The total gas resources under these projects are estimated at 535.5 billion m3.

At the same time, stable growth of marketable gas production to 34.6bn m3 is expected until 2030. This will be facilitated by the launch of four new gas processing plants. These include two gas processing plants on the basis of the Kashagan field with annual capacity of 1 billion and 2.5 billion m3, a plant at Karachaganak with annual capacity of 4 billion m3, and a plant in Zhanaozen with annual capacity of 900 million m3. The Kashagan project is being implemented jointly with the Qatari investor UCC Holding.

As for the level of gasification of the population, this indicator has increased to 62.4% by the end of 2024 and today 12.6 million citizens are provided with gas.

The Minister noted that 112.5 billion tenge was allocated from the republican budget and from the funds of Samruk-Kazyna JSC for the implementation of 84 projects to continue gasification this year. By the end of 2025 it is planned to complete 60 projects on gasification of 71 settlements, which will allow to get access to natural gas for 218 thousand people or in total coverage of gasification will be 12.8 million people.

In order to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to the country's consumers, it is planned to implement major strategic infrastructure projects, including construction of the second string of the Beineu - Bozoi - Shymkent gas trunkline, construction of the Aktobe - Kostanai gas trunkline, and construction of the Taldykorgan - Usharal gas trunkline.

In parallel, Kazakhstan is building up its transit potential. In October 2023, transit of Russian gas to Uzbekistan was launched. In 2023, 1.28 billion m3 was transported, in 2024 - 5.6 billion m3, and this year it is planned to increase transit to 7.3 billion m3 with a further increase to 11 billion m3 per year by 2038.

Yerlan Akkenzhenov also said that this year the plan for transit of Turkmen and Uzbek gas to the People's Republic of China is about 36.2 billion m3, which corresponds to the level of last year.

Meanwhile, he spoke about the problem of growing deficit of liquefied petroleum gas in the domestic market. Especially the increase in demand for liquefied petroleum gas is observed in the border regions. The Ministry of Energy distributes about 130 thousand tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas to the country's regions every month. However, this volume is not enough volume as the current demand exceeds the supply by 25-30 thousand tonnes, which is about 23%. Due to the low level of prices for liquefied gas, the country's motorists are switching to this type of fuel, which in turn is the reason for the increase in consumption. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the number of such vehicles reached 677 thousand units in 2024, which is 16% more than last year, in 2024 there were 582 thousand.

At the same time, work is underway to introduce digital tools, including those with a social orientation. In particular, a pilot Social Wallet project is being implemented, under which low-income residents of West Kazakhstan region and Shymkent city receive gas vouchers with a discount of up to 24%. During the pilot period, 2.9 million m3 of gas was consumed for the amount of 23.5 million tenge. It is planned to extend and scale the project to all regions for a year. Today, to ensure the development of the gas industry marginal prices for the wholesale sale of commodity gas in the domestic market are approved for a period of 5 years. It is noted that with the average marginal wholesale price of commodity gas at 23,646 tenge per 1,000 m3, the national operator subsidises 10,096 tenge for supplies to the population.

Also, as part of the work on digitalisation of the gas industry to improve transparency and efficiency of gas metering, amendments were made to regulations, according to which from 1 January 2025 subsoil users are obliged to equip fields with telemetry metering devices. Test data reception from fields of NC KazMunayGas JSC has already started. Since 1 December 2024, the state function for distribution of liquefied petroleum gas volumes to the domestic market has also been automated. By the end of this year, it is planned to expand the functionality of the digital service to the level of akimats. As part of fulfilment of the instructions of the Head of State, amendments to the legislation on gas supply have been prepared.

Among the key initiatives are introduction of gas consumption standards for household subscribers, installation of meters with remote data transmission, establishment of long-term wholesale prices for oil and gas chemical projects and simplification of the procedure for transfer of gas supply facilities to QazaqGaz management.

#Energy #Government session #Oil & Gas

• 
• 
• 
•