Baku, Azerbaijan, May 4
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Repair and restoration work at the Kazakh oil field 'Kashagan' are being performed slightly ahead of plan, the country's energy ministry told Trend.
It is expected that production at 'Kashagan' will be resumed in late 2016 after the completion of the pipelines' replacement, said the ministry.
Kashagan is a large oil and gas field in Kazakhstan, located in the north of the Caspian Sea.
The geological reserves of Kashagan are estimated at 4.8 billion 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 in September 2013, but in October, it was suspended after a gas leak in one of the main pipelines.
The ministry said that plans for production volumes on 'Kashagan' will be developed after the field will be re-commissioned.
Kazakhstan plans to increase oil production in the future through resumption of production at 'Kashagan' and increase of production on other major oil fields ('Tengiz', 'Karachaganak'), the ministry said.
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