Kazakhstan to compensate Kashagan field losses
By Aynur Jafarova
Kazakhstan intends to increase oil production at other fields in
order to compensate losses from the idle Kashagan field in the
Caspian Sea, Kazakh Economy and Budget Planning Minister Erbolat
Dossayev said at a plenary session of the Kazak parliament.
"Today Kazakh Oil and Gas Ministry and KazMunaiGas National Company
are seeking jointly for additional sources to increase production
at other fields in order to compensate the volume decrease at the
Kashagan field," the minister said.
Oil production in the Kashagan field started on September 11,
2013. However, 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 the detection of another gas leak.
Dossayev went on to add that the government will not include
revenues from the Kashagan project in its budget as all of them are
set to be deposited in the Kazakh National Fund.
"Some 150 billion tenges (183.49 tenge = $1) were allocated to
develop and implement the infrastructure projects, and so, no
additional revenues from Kashagan project have been planned,"
Dossayev noted.
The production volume under the project, which was provided in
Kazakhstan's socio-economic development outlook for 2015, stood at
2.4 million tons of crude oil, and it affects the growth of GDP,
the minister added.
With recoverable oil reserves estimated at 11 billion barrels, the Kashagan field is believed to be the largest oil field in the world after Prudo Bay in Alaska. Its natural gas reserves are also estimated at over 1 trillion cubic meters. The commercial production at the field is expected to be resumed in late 2015.