Ekibastuz (Kazakh: Екібастұз / Ekibastuz, Russian: Экибастуз) is a town in Pavlodar Province, northeastern Kazakhstan. As of 2007^[update] it had a population of 141,000. It is served by Ekibastuz Airport.

The history of Ekibastuz begins in the 19th century, when Kosym Pshembayev, a native Kazakh who was commissioned by Russian merchants to look for mineral resources in that region, alighted on a coal field southeast of Pavlodar.^{[citation needed]} The commercial exploitation of the field started soon after. The field afterwards was sold to a British businessman named Urquart. The railway connection was constructed and the village Ekibastuz was established in 1899, named after the nearby lake of the same name, which means 'two-headed lake' in Kazakh (eki 'two' + bas 'head' + tuz 'salt').

The revolution in the Russian Empire, as well as two World Wars, distracted the attention of the state from the exploitation of the field. The village was totally deserted. However, in 1948 the first team (only 50 people) started construction of the future town. The borders of the future open-cast coal fields were also marked at that time.