With the latest wave of sanctions affecting Russian energy exports to the world, a few Moscow-friendly nations are still doing business with Russia. One of those is Kazakhstan. Recently, the Kazakh Government announced that it has signed an MoU, or memorandum of understanding, with Russian energy major Gazprom to develop a new cross-border gas pipeline that connects the pair at a more direct level and fosters regional trade in the energy sector. With the majority of the world aiming to cut energy ties with Mother Russia, the deal is essential to the nation’s energy sector.
Russia’s state-owned Gazprom signs MoU with the Kazakhstan government
Considering the new wave of sanctions on Russia, it has become extremely rare to see any new deals with Russian energy companies. However, the Kazakhstan government has close ties with Moscow and does not necessarily follow the trends and policies of the West. In that regard, the Kazakhstan government recently announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Gazprom to jointly develop a new cross-border gas pipeline between the two nations.
The MoU was signed recently during a working meeting between Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Roman Sklyar, and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller. Together, the pair noted the cooperative nature of the deal that provides long-term assurance of natural gas to Kazakhstan, led by the increased demand for the natural energy resource.
Mr Miller and Mr Skylar also signed a long-term deal that enables Kazakh gas to be transported and processed at Russian facilities. Moscow will process gas from the Kazakh Karachaganak field at its Orenburg Gas Processing Plant, which is set to be modernized with state-of-the-art equipment in the near future.
A press release from Gazprom notes that Miller also held a working meeting with Kyrgyzstan’s energy minister, Taalaibek Ibrayev.
“They discussed current and prospective issues of cooperation in the gas sector, in particular the supply of Russian gas to the republic and efforts by Gazprom Kyrgyzstan LLC to preparation gas transmission and gas distribution systems in Kyrgyzstan for the autumn-winter period.” – Gazprom press release
Kazakhstan is not the only nation that still has energy ties with Russia
Notably, Miller also held talks with Pakistani Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, in which they discussed promising areas for gas exploration in Pakistan, as the nation also aims to expand its gas production in the near future as they forecast an increase in demand.
“The parties discussed promising areas of cooperation in the gas industry. In the presence of Alexei Miller and Ali Pervaiz Malik, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (Pakistan).” – Gazprom press release
As Gazprom is a state-owned company, one would imagine that Putin is leaning on the nations of the world that do not align with the recent calls to phase out Russian energy supplies over the next few years. The deal with Kazakhstan was inked recently at the 14th St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, with the planned pipeline infrastructure having a transport capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year.
Kazakhstan is aiming to improve its gas infrastructure, as it has been lacking solid investment
Kazakhstan has long been facing issues ensuring its national gas infrastructure is sufficient to meet increases in demand, especially in the north and northwest of the nation. With the EU planning a joint gas purchasing platform in the new year, Russia and its energy companies are preparing for a new future where they only do business with a select few nations that have not imposed sanctions. The energy sector globally has been reliant on Russian resources for far too long, and now Kazakhstan is one of the few nations keeping the communication channels with Moscow open and flowing.
