Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 12
By Elena Kosolapova – Trend:
OPEC increased its forecast for oil production in Kazakhstan in its monthly oil market report published Oct. 12 compared to monthly oil market report published in September.
According to the new report, Kazakhstan’s oil supply, despite the start of production at the Kashagan field, is expected to decrease by 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the previous year to average 1.56 million bpd in 2016.
In its September report, OPEC expected Kazakhstan’s oil production to decrease by 50,000 bpd to average 1.55 million bpd in 2016.
According to the September report, Kazakhstan’s oil production in August dropped by 0.3 million bpd to average 1.27 million bpd due to the steep 40 percent drop in production at the TengizChevroil field as a result of scheduled field maintenance.
However, the output is expected to recover in September to the same level as in July.
OPEC said the start of production at the giant Kashagan field in Kazakhstan will add new volume in Q4 2016 and is planned to reach an initial plateau of 0.37 million bpd in Phase 1 by mid-2017.
Therefore, Kazakh oil production growth is currently forecast at 0.22 million bpd in 2017.
Kazakhstan has already started testing oil production at Kashagan. The official production start at the field is expected in late October.
Oil production in Kazakhstan dropped by 30,000 barrels per day in 2015 and averaged 1.6 million barrels per day, according to OPEC.
The country’s proven oil reserves stood at 30 billion barrels as of early 2016, according to BP.
Kazakhstan’s largest oil fields are Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan.