KAZAKHSTAN: China and Kazakhstan agree to expand an oil pipeline that will link China to the Caspian Sea
- 00:00:53
- ITN Source
KAZAKHSTAN: China and Kazakhstan agree to expand an oil pipeline that will link China to the Caspian Sea
China and Kazakhstan agree to expand an oil pipeline that will link China to the Caspian Sea, giving Beijing direct access to an energy-rich region controlled by Kazakhstan. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Saturday (August 18) agreed to expand the Atasu-Alashankou westward to link it to the Caspian Sea, home to many Kazakh oil and gas deposits. The existing 800 million U.S. dollar, 600-mile (966 km) oil pipeline from Atasu in Kazakhstan to Alashankou in China, is part of Beijing's plan to strengthen energy supplies through more long-term contracts from oil producers. China sees of the pipeline expansion westwards by 700 km (435 miles) as a step towards entrenching itself in Central Asia where energy trade is dominated by Russia and most pipeline infrastructure sends Caspian oil and gas west to Europe rather than east to the growing Chinese market. Hu and Nazarbayev also agreed to route a proposed new gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China through Kazakh territory. The pipeline is due to be built by 2009 and pump 30 billion cubic metres of gas to China. Analysts say the pipeline can send China five million tonnes of Kazakh oil a year and could be expanded to supply four times as much. Summing up the achievements of his visit to Kazakhstan, Hu told reporters: "We have confirmed our readiness to further develop our pragmatic cooperation in the trade, economic, transport and humanitarian and other fields of cooperation." Hu and Nazarbayev agreed to work closer in the steel sector, signing a deal to supply iron ore from Kazakhstan's Sokolov-Sarbai plant, part of the Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC), to China. They also agreed the Export-Import Bank of China would extend a 293 million U.S. dollar 10-year loan to the ENRC, a Kazakh metals major considering a float on the London Stock Exchange, to help finance construction of a primary aluminium plant in Kazakhstan.
ITN Source | August 18, 2007
