Petropavlovsk, 27 October. AstanaGaz KMG has announced public hearings on the environmental impact report for the fourth revision of the Saryarka trunk gas pipeline project, to be held on 7–8 December in the district centres of Kyzylzhar, Akkayin and Tayynsha in North Kazakhstan Region, the industry channel NRG monitor reported.
On the same day the Energy Ministry repeated its goal of 80% gasification nationwide by 2035.
Hearings on an impact report are a mandatory step before construction: residents of the districts the pipe will cross can submit comments. North Kazakhstan Region still has no gas supply, and homes there are heated mainly with coal. The Saryarka pipeline was conceived as the backbone for supplying the northern regions: its first stage brought gas to Astana, and the next stages are meant to extend it northwards.
In 2023 the then energy minister, Almasadam Satkaliyev, said a feasibility study had been prepared for the second and third stages of Saryarka to supply Akmola and North Kazakhstan regions, at a cost of 188.5 billion tenge. In June 2026 Vice Minister of Energy Kairkhan Tutkyshbayev spoke of a memorandum on building an Astana — Kokshetau — Petropavlovsk section connected to the gas network of the Russian town of Ishim. "By 2030 we already expect the first gas supply," he said then. Saryarka would thus be linked to Russia's gas transmission system.
The 2035 target was restated at the Energy Ministry by Altynai Korzhikova, head of its gasification department. It is the same goal that Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov set out at a government meeting in July: on 1 January 2026 gasification reached 64.2%, with gas available to 13.1 million people, and the minister linked growth to 80% to the funding of local projects and to the Ishim — Astana pipeline, for which the government signed a memorandum with Gazprom on 9 October 2025.
What it means: Northern Kazakhstan, which heats with coal, is due to receive gas no earlier than 2030, by extending Saryarka and using Russian gas from Ishim. The December hearings in North Kazakhstan are the first public step on this section.
Who benefits: Residents of North Kazakhstan and Akmola regions: gas is cheaper and cleaner than coal for heating. Gazprom, which gains a new market in Kazakhstan. AstanaGaz KMG as the project operator. The gas price for northern consumers and the terms of the contract with the Russian side have not been named.
Background: The gasification rate is the share of the population with access to piped gas. Over ten years it rose from 43% in 2016 to more than 64% at the start of 2026; the gas grid covers mainly the western and southern regions, where gas is produced or arrives by trunk pipelines.
We have also reported that Kazakhstan's output of marketable gas fell to its lowest since 2011.
