‘Kashagan’ shareholders reach interim decision on financing second phase of project
Participants of the international consortium NCOC, implementing the project of development of Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil and gas field, reached an interim decision on financing the second phase of the project at a meeting in Astana on Thursday, a senior source in oil sector in Kazakhstan told Trend news agency on Thursday.
The source did not disclose the essence of the decision.
The budget of the second phase was one of the disputable issues between the Kazakh government and shareholders of the consortium.
Kashagan is major oil and gas field in Kazakhstan located in the north part of Caspian Sea. According to Kazakh geologists, Kashagan's geological reserves are estimated at 4.8 billion tons of oil. According to the project's operator, total oil reserves amount to 38 billion barrels, or six billion tons, 10 billion barrels from which are extracted. Kashagan holds huge natural gas reserves amounting to more than one trillion cubic meters.
The companies which develop the project plan to begin commercial production on Kashagan in the first quarter of 2013.
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.