A Chinese energy company is set to play a key role in developing Kazakhstan’s largest unconventional gas reserves, marking a major milestone for the country’s energy sector.

Kazakhstan is preparing to take a major step into a new segment of its energy industry, unveiling plans to develop unconventional gas reserves for the first time at the country’s largest Sozak field in the Kyzylorda region, The Caspian Post reports via Kazakh media.

A memorandum was signed between Kazakh Invest and Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation to support investments totaling $7.8 billion for the exploration and development of the field.

While Kazakhstan’s proven unconventional gas reserves are currently estimated at around 100 billion cubic meters, preliminary assessments suggest that total production at the Sozak field could reach up to one trillion cubic meters, marking a potential breakthrough for the national gas sector.

Chairman of Kazakh Invest Sultangali Kinzhakulov said the project will be implemented by an international consortium with the participation of Qatari and Chinese investors. The initiative is now at the exploration stage, with investors planning to invest $250 million in 2026 to confirm reserves, including tight gas, coalbed methane, and shale gas, before moving toward commercial production.

Kinzhakulov noted that the extraction of hard-to-recover and unconventional gas represents a new direction for Kazakhstan, which currently lacks advanced technologies in this field, unlike the United States and China, which remain global leaders.

Kazakh Invest also emphasized the project’s social impact: Kazakhstani citizens are expected to account for at least 90 per cent of the workforce, creating up to 2,000 jobs at the initial stage and as many as 7,000 jobs once full production capacity is reached. Investors have committed to training local specialists and sourcing goods and services from the domestic market.

Addressing environmental concerns, Kinzhakulov assured that the technologies to be used are safe and have been successfully applied for many years in the U.S. and China.

Huanlong Chen, Chairman of Geo-Jade Petroleum Corporation, said the company is ready to increase both financing and operational efforts for the development of the Sozak field, while seeking support from Kazakhstan’s authorized bodies. He added that Geo-Jade has already invested up to $3 billion in major energy projects in Kazakhstan over the past decade.

Kazakhstan and China had also launched work on the expansion of the Shymkent Oil Refinery, underscoring the growing scale of bilateral energy cooperation.