Azernews.Az

(Dow Jones Newswires, September 5) – Eni SpA, an Italian oil major, expects production at the Kashagan offshore oil field in Kazakhstan to start by the end of 2012, the company’s chairman, Giuseppe Recchi, said on Sunday, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

"Phase one of the Kashagan project has been completed by over 90%," Dow Jones quoted Recchi as saying.

Recchi’s statement comes on the heels of unconfirmed reports that the Western-led consortium of oil companies developing the oil field has asked the government for an extension of the 2013 first-oil deadline when the first phase of the oil field development was set to start.

Production during Kashagan’s first phase is expected to be about 300,000 bpd shortly after launch. It will reach 1 million barrels a day during the second phase of development and will peak at 1.5 million barrels a day during the third phase.

Eni is responsible for the first phase of development.

Kashagan is the largest oil field discovered in the last 30 years with recoverable oil reserves are estimated at a minimum of 7-9 billion barrels and the total oil in-place at 38 billion barrels.

Kashagan is being developed by the North Caspian Operating Company consortium, which is also developing the adjoining Kairan, Aktoty and Kalamkas oil fields. The consortium includes Eni, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, ExxonMobil Corp, Total, KazMunaiGas (all with a 16.81% stake), ConocoPhillips (8.4%) and Inpex Holdings Inc (7.56%).