Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Russia is interested in expanding the delivery of oil produced in Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan field via the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, Baku-based Trend news agency quoted Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin as saying.

"The Russian side has an interest in expansion of delivery of Kashagan oil from Kazakhstan, including via the Atyrau-Samara route," he said.

The operator of the oil pipeline in the Kazakh territory is the KazTransOil Company while the operator in the Russian territory is Transneft Company.

According to the data released by the oil and gas ministry, Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan field produced over 60,000 tons of oil per day before the detection of a second gas leak.
The Uzen-Atyrau-Samara oil pipeline is a heated main oil pipeline which runs from Uzen field to the Atyrau refinery and further joins the Transneft oil pipeline system in the direction of Samara.

The pipeline is being specially heated with furnaces for quick-freezing oil from the Zhetybai-Uzen group of fields.

The volume of oil pumping constitutes 15.75 million tons. The maximum capacity of the pipeline is 30 million tons of oil a year.

Kashagan is one of the largest fields discovered in the past 40 years. Recoverable oil reserves of Kashagan are estimated at 11 billion barrels, whereas total geological crude reserves stand at 35 billion barrels. Besides, natural gas reserves are estimated at over 1 trillion cubic meters. The first well in the Kashagan field was reopened and first oil volumes were produced on September 11.

The North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) - the operator of the North Caspian Project announced on October 9 that oil production from Kashagan field was suspended.
Karabalin said earlier that Kazakhstan may resume oil production from the giant Kashagan field in the second half of December 2013.