The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a €294M loan to enhance natural gas storage and distribution in Kazakhstan.


EBRD will provide €242M to Intergas Central Asia to enhance the gas storage to its full capacity of four billion cubic metres (bcm) from the current limit of 2.6bcm, and €52M to KazTransGas-Aimak for the expansion and modernisation of the natural gas distribution network in several regions of Kazakhstan.

The improvement will allow the utility to connect new households and industrial customers to gas supplies, while reducing the current dependency on coal-generated electricity.

EBRD’s president Sir Suma Chakrabarti said: “We have worked consistently with Kazakhstan on projects which develop the green economy.

“Few approaches create such immediate progress as a switch to cleaner sources of energy. Gas is much cleaner than coal and helps to complement renewable energy.

“We are very pleased to start our cooperation with KazTransGas and to continue our enhanced partnership with Kazakhstan with these two major steps towards a sustainable future.”