Natural gas: Kazakhstan’s next wave of partnerships
I’m not biased when I reread articles like these in Natural Gas World (https://lnkd.in/grj2bxvr) about our limitless potential in leading the global oil and gas sector. While a few years ago, industry analysts thought of Kazakhstan as primarily an oil giant, in 2025 it has emerged also as a leader in natural gas, and this seems to be a year of partnerships.
🔴 What is natural gas’s place in Kazakhstan?
🔴 What can Kazakhstan do with its natural gas?
- Proven natural gas reserves of 3 trillion cubic meters (tcm) with projected reserves around 5 tcm.
- Three decades of expertise in upstream, midstream, and downstream of natural gas operations.
- Natural gas can serve as a bridge fuel in Kazakhstan’s national vision 2050 and decarbonization strategy 2060.
- Location between Europe, India, and China; A 55 billion cubic meters Central Asia-China pipeline already passes through Kazakhstan.
Existing relationships with China National Petroleum Corporation, Lukoil and Chevron, TotalEnergies and Eni.
- New partnerships with Middle Eastern energy giants, such as ADNOC (UAE) for refining and petrochemicals and ACWA Power (Saudi Arabia) for large-scale renewable energy projects.
Opportunities
💡 Although it has large proven reserves, Kazakhstan is not a major exporter of natural gas because of a lack of sufficient gas transport infrastructures. This is an area of huge opportunity especially when utilizing the geographical advantages of Kazakhstan.
💡 Coal production, on the other hand, has been steadily increasing, reaching 109 million tons in 2023. Nearly 30% of Kazakhstan's coal production is exported. Environmental policy shifts will allow natural gas to take the place of coal.
💡 Natural gas demand is estimated to grow to 30 bcm (by 2030) and 35 bcm (2050), driven by residential segment (owing to the massive gasification program) and power generation (displacing coal and building of new gas-fired plants).
💡 On enhancing the investment environment, the government introduced the Improved Model Contract (IMC) in 2023 with the goal of enhancing competitiveness for challenging fields with high H2S and complex subsurface structures.
Excitement abounds in the natural gas sector in Kazakhstan. I feel like the next wave of partnerships between Kazakhstani businesses and their international partners will be centered on natural gas.
