China and Kazakhstan pledge to promote energy co-operation

On Saturday, China and Kazakhstan pledged to promote energy cooperation. The joint declaration was issued after talks between visiting Chinese President, Xi Jinping, and his Kazack counterpart, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The two countries vowed to extend and deepen their co-operation in energy, as well as ensuring the safe and stable operation of joint projects such as oil and gas exploration and transportation. According to the declaration, both sides will speed up the expansion of the 2800 km China-Kazakhstan crude oil pipeline, and the construction of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline.

Gas pipeline to pump Kazakh gas to China

China and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to develop the gas pipeline in August 2007, and a year later CNPC and state-owned KazMunaiGaz formed a joint venture for the construction and operation of the project. Ultimately, it will send Kazakh gas to China via the Central Asia-China network.

According to Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan and China plan to sign 22 energy agreements worth US$ 30 billion. Both Nazarbayev and Xi Jinping have urged entrepreneurs from China and Kazakhstan to boost cooperation and have set the target for trade between their countries at US$ 40 billion dollars by 2015.

Trade between China and Kazakhstan reached US$ 25.68 billion in 2012, making China Kazakhstan´s biggest trading partner. CNPC said that there are currently 10 oil and gas joint co-operation projects under way with Kazakhstan.

Chinese Ambassador, Le Yucheng, stated that Xi Jinping’s visit to Kazakhstan is a milestone in the two countries interaction and is bound to inject new momentum into bilateral cooperation.

Edited from various sources by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

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