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Oil production in Kazakhstan will amount to 77 million tons in 2016, Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik said, IA Novosti-Kazakhstan reported on January 15.

Speaking at the press conference, Shkolnik said that 79.46 million tons of oil was produced, while the initial plan was 79 million tons.

"We plan to produce some 77 million tons of oil this year," he said, adding that work is underway to increase this figure.

"We will launch the Kashagan project this year, and it will start from the next year to give its contribution to overall oil production,” he added.

According to his calculations, Kashagan will first produce seven million tons, then rising up to 11 million tons next year and further to 13 million tons.

The geological reserves of Kashagan are estimated at 4.8 billion metric tons of oil. The total oil reserves amount to 38 billion barrels; some 10 billion out of them are recoverable reserves.

There are large natural gas reserves at the Kashagan field - over one trillion cubic meters.

The production at the Kashagan field started September 2013, but in October, it was ceased after a gas leak in one of the main pipelines. The analysis revealed numerous cracks in the pipeline, which needed to be completely replaced.

The project’s operator, the North Caspian Operating Co. (NCOC) confirmed the need for a complete replacement of the gas and oil pipelines, which have a total length of about 200 kilometers.

The production at the Kashagan is expected to resume in late 2016.

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