KAZAKH PRESIDENT, CHINESE OIL BOSS MULLS PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION

Excerpt from report by Kazakh Khabar TV on 1 April

The head of state, Nursultan Nazarbayev, today received the first deputy president of the China National [Petroleum] Corporation [CNPC] and the chairman of the board of directors of the CNPC-Aktobemunaygaz joint-stock company, Wu Yaowen. The CNPC, one of the major oil companies in the world, launched its investment activities in Kazakhstan back in 1997. At that time, it purchased over 60 per cent of Aktobemunaygaz's shares.

Wu Yaowen said that the company had made investments to the tune of over 1bn dollars to date. The company has fully fulfilled its production plan, and the construction of the Emba-Zhanazhol railway [western Kazakhstan] has started.

The president was interested in the progress of the construction of the oil pipeline from western Kazakhstan to China which will raise the country's export potential. According to preliminary estimates, the capacity of this pipeline, which is strategically important to the two countries, will be about 50m tonnes a year.

[Passage to end omitted: background]

[Video shows a meeting in progress, oil facilities]

Source: Khabar Television, Almaty, in Russian 1400 gmt 1 Apr 04