Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russian Oil to Flow to China Through Kazakh Pipes — Kazakh Minister

In addition to shipping oil to China by rail Russian oil will apparently flow to China through Kazakh pipes. China was only assured of delivery of 10 million tonnes of crude by rail next year and 15 million tonnes in 2006.

-Am

Created: 06.10.2004 12:47 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:47 MSK, 4 hours 8 minutes ago


MosNews

The 1,000 kilometer oil pipeline linking the Kazakh town of Atasu with China’s western provinces with the projected annual throughput capacity of 10 million tons “will be filled with Russian oil”, said Kazakhstan’s Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Vladimir Shkolnik. Shkolnik was speaking on Tuesday, October 5, at the international oil and natural gas exhibition in Kazakhstan.

Construction of the Atasu-Alashankou oil pipeline was officially started on September 28, Prime-Tass economic news agency reported. The first stage of the pipeline is to be completed in 2006. The pipeline is being built by Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz and China National Oil and Gas Corporation (CNPC). As MosNews wrote in May, Nursultan Nazarbaev, the President of Kazakhstan already offered Russia a chance to export its Siberian oil to China using the oil pipelines which span Kazakhstan’s territory.

http://www.mosnews.com/money/2004/10/06/kazakhoilchina.shtml