Kazakhstan Building Natural Gas Pipeline to China

ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Construction on a gas pipeline linking energy-rich Kazakhstan with China started Wednesday, a Kazakh construction company said.

The pipeline should be completed by June 2010 and will have an initial annual capacity of around 4.5 billion cubic meters (160 billion cubic feet) of natural gas, Kazstroiservis said.

The new transit route is part of a larger project to build two parallel pipelines connecting China with Central Asia's vast natural gas reserves. The pipes will stretch more than 1,800 kilometers (1100 miles) from the Turkmenistan, cross Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and will enter China's northwestern Xinjiang region.

China hopes the pipelines will reach annual capacity of around 30 billion cubic meters of gas within the next three decades. China is growing increasingly reliant on natural gas supplies and its annual demand is expected to reach more than 200 billion cubic meters by 2020.

The pipeline will also ensure diversity of export routes for Central Asia's vast gas reserves. Most of regional gas exports are controlled by Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom, and the West is also vying for large-scale energy supplies from the region.