In January–July of this year, natural gas production in Kazakhstan amounted to 14.8 billion cubic meters, down 10.3% compared with the same period in 2024.

The bulk of output traditionally came from the West Kazakhstan Region, which accounted for 13.8 billion cubic meters, or 93% of the country’s total. Annual production there declined by 11.2%.

Gas was also produced in the Mangystau Region (756.9 million cubic meters), Zhambyl Region (178.6 million cubic meters), Kyzylorda Region (49.5 million cubic meters), East Kazakhstan Region (30.8 million cubic meters), and Aktobe Region (22.1 million cubic meters).

In the first half of 2025, domestic companies covered 55.4% of demand for natural gas (domestic sales plus exports), down from 73.6% a year earlier. The indicator declined by a notable 18.2 percentage points. While natural gas production rose 3.9% over the six months to 5.3 billion cubic meters, imports grew much faster—up 2.3 times to 4.2 billion cubic meters.

Imports accounted for 44.6% of available resources, while exports made up 43.4%, compared with 22.7% a year earlier. Overall, exports and re-exports surged 2.6 times to 4.1 billion cubic meters. In detail, Kazakhstan supplied natural gas to only two countries: Russia (2.7 billion cubic meters worth 59.4 million US dollars) and China (1.4 billion cubic meters worth 350.4 million US dollars).

As a result, domestic market sales totaled 5.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas, up 1.2% compared with January–June of last year.

Globally, Kazakhstan ranked 25th out of 49 countries in natural gas production in 2024, according to World Population Review. The country extracted 29.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas last year, while domestic consumption stood at 20.7 billion cubic meters. In terms of global reserves, Kazakhstan accounted for just 0.7% of the total.

The United States leads global production, with 1 trillion cubic meters in 2024. Russia follows with 629.9 billion cubic meters. Rounding out the top five, though at lower volumes, are Iran (262.9 billion cubic meters), China (248.4 billion cubic meters), and Canada (194.2 billion cubic meters).

Within the CIS, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan all produced more natural gas than Kazakhstan in 2024.

Let us return to Kazakhstan’s statistics and look at prices. By the end of August this year, household gas prices in the country rose 21% over the month, 26.9% since the beginning of the year, and 27.7% year-on-year.

The sharpest increase was recorded in the Atyrau Region, where prices jumped 48.9% over the month, 64.3% since the start of the year, and 70% year-on-year. Significant price growth was also observed in the Aktobe Region (up 37.4% over the month and 51.6% year-on-year) and the Kyzylorda Region (up 31% over the month and 37.5% year-on-year).