Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

An investigation into the causes of gas leakage in a pipeline running from Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan field has been suspended till April.

The news was announced by the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), the operator of the North Caspian Sea Project (Kashagan field) on March 28.

"NCOC as the operator of the North Caspian Sea Project has not yet received the results of the investigation into the pipeline incident. The results of the investigation are expected in March/April 2014," the company said.

Investigation results were initially expected in early 2014, but the timeframe was postponed to March.

"Consequently no decision has been made yet on the pipeline rehabilitation plan. Therefore no date can be set to restart production at this moment." the NCOC said. "Sulphur stress cracking was identified as the root cause of the pipeline issues. This process occurs if steel of high hardness is exposed to high concentrations of H2S under high pressure in the presence of water," it added.

The NCOC also said this mechanism is not at all related to normal corrosion but solely to the hardness of the steel.

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 September 11, 2013. However the operations had to be stopped on September 24, 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.