EBRD may finance Astana gasification project
By Kamila Aliyeva
The Kazakh Ministry of Energy is negotiating with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to finance the construction of the Kazakhstan’s Saryarka main gas pipeline.
This was announced by Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev during the meeting of the government, Kazinform reported.
“Currently, active negotiations are underway on the issue of financing the project by attracting borrowed funds from the EBRD,” he said.
An interdepartmental working group is now being formed with the participation of representatives of the ministries of national economy, finance, Samruk-Kazyna, KazMunaiGaz, and Akimat of Astana, according to the official.
“This is being done to determine the conditions and the financing scheme for the Saryarka gas pipeline project,” he explained.
If implemented this project will allow gasification of 192 private, 48 small communal boiler houses, as well as 22,000 private residential houses and hot-water boilers of CHPP-1, CHPP-3 in Astana, which in turn will improve the ecology in the city.
“According to our assessment, this will reduce emissions by 35,000 tons per year. In addition, along the main gas pipeline route, there will be an opportunity for infrastructure development, creation of new production facilities using natural gas,” Bozumbayev added.
The project on gasification of Astana, northern and central regions of Kazakhstan will allow providing efficient and convenient heating system, increasing the power output. New Saryarka pipeline will provide consumers with domestic natural gas from Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent main pipeline.
Works on design and construction of «Saryarka» main pipeline for the gasification of Astana, northern and central regions of Kazakhstan are performed by order of Kazakhstan’s Head of State Nursultan Nazarbayev.
This project is one of priority projects for KazTransGas JSC. Specialists of the company chose the most efficient construction variant for its implementation considering the use of operating pipelines currently kept in conservation. It is expected to allow reducing sufficiently the net cost of the pipeline construction and setting comfortable gas price and rates for consumers.
---
Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva
Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz