Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) is considering different technical plans for a safe oil production at Kazakhstan's Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea.

The company said that one plan would be finalized at the end after deep analysis and different evaluations. NCOC rejected as baseless recent speculations in the media about the final plan.

The planning process started after some leaks in Kashagan field. Based on initial investigations, sulfide stress cracking was the immediate cause for the leaks. Investigations are still underway to establish the main cause of the incident.

In response to some reports in mass media, NCOC announced that gas hydrates formations could not cause sulfide stress cracking. It also went on adding that technical inspections shows that so far, Kashagan production facilities have not experiences hydrate formation.

Inspection process by the so called Intelligent PIG (Pipeline Inspection Gauge) is in progress. NCOC said the process has been completed for the sour gas line; the raw data are under review and interpretation. The results of data interpretation -due to be available in early 2014 - will be included in a report for Kazakhstan's authorities.

Meanwhile, laboratory analysis and simulations of the operational environment with samples from the pipeline have revealed that the pipeline material was compatible with the conditions of Kashagan field.

The company said: "The specifications fully meet requirements of the NACE (National Association of Corrosion Engineers) standards and other standards in international oil and gas field development."

The Kashagan field with recoverable oil reserves - estimated at 11 billion barrels - is believed to be the largest oil field in the world after Prudo Bay in Alaska. Besides, natural gas reserves are estimated at over 1 trillion cubic meters.

The oil production in the field started on 11 September 2013. However the operations had to be stopped on 24 September, due to a gas leak in the onshore section of the gas pipeline running from Island D to the Bolashak onshore processing facility.

The Department of Emergency Situations was immediately briefed on the regulations. Production was resumed, but stopped again on October 9 after a detection of a gas leak.

Following repair of the affected joint, pressure tests were performed in a fully controlled environment revealing some other potential gas leaks. A thorough investigation was launched at that time.