AKIPRESS.COM - Kazakh state-owned firm KazTransGas will ship 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China’s PetroChina for about $1 billion, KazTransGas said Tuesday.

Shipments under the first such deal between the companies will start on October 15 and will be carried out over the course of one year, KazTransGas said in a statement.

A gas pipeline completed in 2009 connects all Central Asian energy exporters - Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan - to China. But Kazakhstan has until now exported gas only to Russia because additional pipelines were needed to link its fields to the Chinese one.

Unnamed gas fields in the west Kazakhstan and the existing reserves of KazTransGas will be a resource base for the exports.

Khorgos checkpoint will be a gas reception of spot for Chinese side, the statement said.