BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 6
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
While KazMunayGas’s (KMG) stake in the Kashagan oil field remains frozen in relation to the Tristangate dispute, dividends are unlikely to be paid until 2024, the new report of Fitch Ratings said, Trend reports.
Its latest ratings report notes that “we do not expect a dividend distribution from this asset as long as the stake remains frozen...”
The Fitch note also observes that KMG’s call option with Samruk-Kazyna on its stake in the Kashagan oil field, valid until 2022, remains “uncertain” while the stake is frozen by the Dutch courts.
In December 2020, the Dutch Supreme Court set aside the Amsterdam Court of Appeal's decision related to the Kashagan stake, valued at $5.2 billion, but the attachment remained in place as security for the award of more than $540 million payable to the owners and bondholders of Tristan Oil.
The stake in Dutch entity KMG Kashagan B.V. is held by Kazakhstan through its sovereign wealth fund JSC Samruk-Kazyna.
The Kashagan field is one of the three largest oil fields located in the northern part of the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. Its recoverable reserves reach approximately 9-13 billion barrels (1-2 billion tons) of oil.
The first commercial oil production started at Kashagan in 2016. The project operator - North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) - shipped the first million tons of oil for export in early 2017. NCOC has reached a record-breaking volume of oil extraction at the field (390,000-400,000 barrels a day) in 2019.
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