A Kazakh-Chinese JV will be set up in July to build the Beyneu-Bozoy-Akbulak gas pipeline, KazMunaiGas Managing Director of gas projects Bolat Nazrov said. "A JV will be set up in July. It will be engaged in building the Beyneu-Bozoy-Akbulak pipeline", Nazarov told journalists on the sidelines during "government hour" in the Kazakh senate. He said Kazakhstan would own 50 percent of the project and that the authorised capital would be about $3 billion. He added that $2.5 billion would be attracted from the Chinese side. "The Chinese national oil company will attract $500 million and a Chinese bank will provide $2 billion under guarantees from Chinese companies. $500 million will come from the Kazakhstan budget", Nazarov clarified. He said all preparatory work for the gas pipeline project has been accomplished already.
"The technical plan and the route have been finished", he said. Construction on the pipeline is to begin in the second half of 2010 and be completed in 2012. The Beyneu-Bozoy-Akbulak pipeline will be 1,500 kilometers long and have a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters a year. It will pump gas from western Kazakhstan, including industrial production on the Caspian shelf and southern regions of the country.
