UPDATE 1-Kazakhstan completes China gas link segment

* First gas to be shipped in late November 2009

* About 4.5-5.0 bcm of Turkmen gas to transit in 2010

(Adds CNPC comments, background)

By Masha Gordeyeva

BAISERKE, Kazakhstan, July 10 (Reuters) - China moved a step closer to securing a new source of gas supply on Friday when Kazakhstan finished building its segment of a pan-Central Asian gas pipeline designed to address China's growing energy needs.

The pipeline is the first significant gas link connecting the former Soviet region with eastern markets while bypassing Russia. Russian gas monopoly Gazprom (GAZP.MM) is currently the main buyer of Central Asian gas.

"The first gas will be shipped in late November 2009," said Beimbet Shayakhmetov, the head of Asian Gas Pipeline company, a joint venture set up by China and Kazakhstan to build the link.

"In 2010, we will transit about 4.5-5.0 billion cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan," he told reporters as workers were welding the last pipe links at the construction site on the steppe near the country's commercial hub of Almaty.

The Kazakh segment is part of a route that links Turkmenistan's natural gas deposits with China via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Other parts of the pipeline are yet to be completed.