China and Kazakhstan consider joint oil and natural gas projects

China and Kazakhstan are giving serious consideration to joint oil and natural gas projects, the Chinese ambassador to Kazakhstan said.
One of them is a project to lay an oil pipeline from western Kazakhstan to China, which is being successfully put into practice, Ambassador Zhou Xiaopei told.

The first 450 km section of the pipeline, linking Atyrau to Kenkiyak in north-western Kazakhstan, was put into operation in December 2002. During a visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Kazakhstan in June 2003, KazMunaiGaz and CNPC, the Kazakh and Chinese national oil companies, signed an agreement on the phased construction of an oil pipeline to run from Kazakhstan to China.
Zhou said the two companies were currently conducting a feasibility study and considering the route for the pipeline.