Tethys to export Kazakh gas to China after Hanhong tie-up

Tethys plans to increase gas production in Kazakhstan to about 1 million cubic meters (6,100 barrels of oil equivalent) a day from about 3,000 barrels now, said Executive Chairman David Robson. The Guernsey, U.K.-based company may export the fuel east as soon as 2015 through the planned Kazakhstan-China pipeline after agreeing to sell half of its fields to a unit of Hanhong Private Management Co.

"We can do it fairly quick," Robson said Nov. 20 in an interview in London.

Tethys pumps most of its oil and gas in Kazakhstan. It teamed up with Total SA (FP) and China National Petroleum Corp. in December to explore the Bokhtar area in Tajikistan, adjacent to South Yoloten, Turkmenistan's largest gas field. If fuel is discovered there, it may be also exported to China, Robson said in February, Kazinform has learnt from Bloomberg.

CNPC started building a pipe from Kazakhstan's largest city of Almaty to the border town of Khorgos earlier this year. In September, KazTransGas and a partner started filling a section between the towns of Bozoi and Shymkent in southern Kazakhstan. Both links will be part of the longer pipeline from the Caspian Sea to China.

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