Azernews.Az

Kazakh Kashagan field project's operator the North Caspian Operating Company BV (NCOC) will start first oil output at the field in late March 2013, Kazinform news agency quoted the company's managing director Pierre Offant as saying.

Offant made this statement within a meeting with head of Atyrau region Baktykozha Izmukhambetov, where the field lies.

According to Offant, the company has completed 83 per cent of onshore and 62 percent of offshore works at the field. Moreover, Kazakh employees have substituted 80 percent of foreign specialists in the project by now.

Kashagan is one of the largest fields discovered in the past 40 years. Kazakh geologists estimate the field's oil reserves at 4.8 billion tons. According to the project operator, total oil reserves are 38 billion barrels (six billion tons), with a recoverable volume of about 10 billion barrels. Natural gas reserves are estimated at over one trillion cubic meters.

At present, the Kashagan project participants are Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total and KazMunaiGas, which owns equal shares (16.81 per cent), as well as ConocoPhillips - 8.4 per cent and Japan's Inpex - 7.55 per cent.