Astana ratifies accord on equal access to united gas transport system

ASTAMA, May 1 (Itar-Tass) - Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
signed the law on "ratification of the Agreement on rules of access to
services of subjects of natural monopolies in the sphere of gas
transportation along gas-piping systems, including principles of pricing
and transport policy", reported this week his press service.
The adoption of this law will help to create a system of exchanging
information on domestic consumption of gas, to work out criteria of
compiling forecasts of balances, standardize normative and technical
documents regulating the operation of gas-piping systems, located on the
territories of member states of the Common Economic Space (CES).
The ratification of the agreement, signed in Moscow last December, was
earlier approved by the republican parliament. According to Kazakh Oil and
Gas Minister Sauat Mynbayev, the aim of this document is "to establish
rules of an access to services of subjects of natural monopolies in the
sphere of gas transportation along gas-piping systems, including
fundamentals of pricing and tariff policy to meet requirements of CES
member countries".
In compliance with the agreement, the sides achieve market (equally
profitable) gas prices no later than January 1, 2015. At the same time, as
Mynbayev put it, "the Kazakh side ensures gradual rise in gas selling
prices in the Kazakh territory to the level, tantamount to gas prices in
the territory of the Russian Federation".