Azernews.Az

A new head will be appointed for the North Caspian Productions Operations Company, which is Kazakh Kashagan project's operator, on the eve of oil production start at Kashagan field, Kazinform news agency reported.

The acting managing director of the company Hans Bakker will leave his post on June 1. He will be replaced by the acting deputy managing director of the company, Adian Van Dyke.

Speaking about the Kashagan project, Hans Bakker expressed hope that oil production at Kashagan will start successfully in near future.

Kashagan is one of the largest fields discovered in the past 40 years. According to the analysts, it has the potential to unite the top five largest oil companies in the world. Kazakh geologists estimate geological 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.