Astana, Kazakhstan, Feb.11
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
The abnormal cold in Uzbekistan became one of the causes of problems with gas supply to the southern regions of Kazakhstan, Director General of KazTransGas (KTG) JSC Serik Sultangali said on Feb.10 at a press conference in Astana.
"Two reasons for problems in gas supply are the abnormal cold in Uzbekistan and untimely reaction of large enterprises of the southern regions to the pressure drop in the gas pipeline," Sultangali told journalists.
As soon as problems with gas supply emerged, KazTransGas JSC took control of the situation and tried to do everything possible, so residents were not left without heat, according to the director general.
"Large enterprises such as thermoelectric plant, didn't switch to reserve fuel on time, thereby gas control points began to automatically switch off, and the gas supply to remote areas stopped," Sultangali said.
KTG JSC accordingly had to insist on limiting the supply of natural gas to large consumers of South Kazakhstan and the Zhambyl regions.
Additionally, KTG held a series of talks with its Uzbek, Chinese and Russian partners. Two jumpers between the Kazakhstan-China gas pipelines and BGR-TBA were opened in accordance to the reached agreements, which gave an additional 550,000 cubic meters of gas per hour to the south of Kazakhstan.
"Thus, currently, while the amount of consumption in the south is 909,000 cubic meters per hour, the formed gas resources amount to 1.042 million cubic meters per hour. That is to say, a surplus in the volume of 133,000 cubic meters per hour was formed, which allowed complete removal of the restrictions on gas supply for the population of the South Kazakhstan and Zhambyl provinces," the director general of the JSC said.
However, the director general said because of the need for an uninterrupted gas supply to residents of the region, there is still a need for limitation for large enterprises of the regions, in particular, for Zhambyl State District Power Plan, as well as the South Kazakhstan and Zhambyl thermoelectric plant.
Sultangali also stressed that five years ago, such disruptions in gas supply would have been a real collapse for the country's south, but the resources available today, in particular, the new gas pipeline Bozoi-Shymkent, allows monitoring the situation with the gas supply.
"Once Beyneu-Bozoi section with the length of 311 kilometers is put into operation in 2016, Beyneu-Bozoi-Shymkent pipeline will be at full design capacity (10 billion cubic meters per year), and the problems with the reliability of gas supplies to the south of the country will be fully resolved," the director general said.
Currently, Bozoi-Shymkent allows transporting gas in the volume of 2.5 billion cubic meters per year. The new pipeline now gasifies more than 500 settlements located along the gas pipeline. One of these points is the city of Turkestan, to which KTG JSC delivered natural gas in December 2013.
"Thus, we delivered gas to the threshold of the house. Internal networks iare the work of local authorities and the administration of Turkestan actively works on this issue," Sultangali said.
KazTransGas was established in 2000 to organize the work in the oil and gas industry.
The companies and organizations dealing with gas production, transportation and sale are included in the KazTransGas company group. Since July, 2012 KazTransGas JSC has been defined as the national operator in the field of gas and gas supply in accordance with the Kazakh government's decree.
Translated by L.Z.
Edited by C.N.