Kazakhstan to use coal in a new way (Exclusive)

Global trends on switch to low-carbon and "green" economy directly affect the volume of coal consumption in Kazakhstan, The Ministry of Industry and Infrastructural Development told Trend.

"Notwithstanding this fact the coal industry goes on being one of the most important resource spheres of economy. The percentage of coal industry to country’s GDP amounts to 0.3 percent, whereas the percentage of coal industry in mining industry is 2.2 percent," the source in the ministry said.

"Thus, during the last ten years (2009-2018) the volume of production in coal industry almost tripled (106.9 billion tenge in 2009 and 319.8 billion tenge in 2018), whereas the value of investments into the fixed capital more than doubled (40.3 billion tenge in 2009 and 85.5 billion tenge in 2018)," the source added.

According to the source, coal is no longer only perceived as fuel in Kazakhstan, but also as raw material for coal chemical industry to transform it into product with high-value added.

"Currently, some 70 percent of electricity is manufactured by using coal in Kazakhstan. Furthermore, the coal industry meets 100 percent of the demand for fuel by coke-chemical industry, industrial ventures, public utilities and citizens," the source noted.

The source also stated that in order to use coal to produce synthetic liquid fuels the joint project of KazMunayGas Refining and Marketing, SP Arbat, Razrez "Kuznetskiy" and Qinghua of China are realizing a joint project.

"The main goal of the project is to implement technologies for production of synthetic liquid fuels and petrochemical products from coal," the source concluded.

(1 USD = 385.14 KZT on Aug. 22 )