Kazakhstan reveals oil production forecast for 2017
By Nigar Abbasova
Resource-rich Kazakhstan has set its oil production forecast for 2017 at the level of 81 million tons. Economy minister of the country Timur Suleymanov said that the increase is mainly due to expansion of production at Kashagan field, the world's largest discovery in the last 30 years, Kazakhstan Today reported.
Kazakhstan over-fulfilled its plan of energy production and increased the volume of export in 2016. The plan for 2016 was at the level of 75.5 million tons, while the actual volume stood at 78 million tons of oil.
The over-fulfillment was also due to production at Kashagan, which added some 1 million tons to the output level in 2016. The country plans to produce 8.9 million tons of oil and 5.6 million tons of gas at Kashagan field in 2017 with gradual increase in output in subsequent years.
Export of Kazakh oil increased up to 62 million tons, while liquefied gas production increased by some 136 tons.
The country is expected to be among the main contributors to world oil output growth in 2017, according to OPEC. The adjusted Kazakh oil supply is expected to grow by 0.14 million bpd and average 1.70 million bpd.
In late 2016, Kazakhstan agreed to implement modest cuts of some 20,000 bpd from November 2016 level within a deal between OPEC and non-cartel producers. The reduction was mainly implemented in fields located in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions.
Proven oil reserves of the country as of early 2016 stood at 30 billion barrels, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.
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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova
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