AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakhstan has started supplying gas to China via the Central-Asia China gas pipeline system for the first time, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) said on Monday.

Commercial gas volumes were sent across the Kazakh-Chinese border on Oct. 13, CNPC said on its website, part of a deal under which Kazakhstan has agreed to send 5 billion cubic meters of gas to China over one year, Reuters reported.

The gas, which arrives as China prepares for its winter heating season, is pumped through the 25 billion cubic metres (Bcm) per year ‘Line C’ of the three-line Central Asia-China pipeline network operated by CNPC in conjunction with local partners. The first line became operational in 2009.

To date, shipments via the system have now reached 194.5 Bcm, CNPC said. The vast majority of the gas comes from Turkmenistan, while Uzbekistan also feeds volumes into the system.

Kazakhstan has previously been only a transit state in the Central Asia-China gas pipeline project, although small volumes of Kazakh gas have flowed through a privately owned pipeline built by Guanghui Energy.