Astana, Kazakhstan, Dec.26
By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:
As a consequence of the implementation of the Future Growth Project at the Tengiz field, Kazakhstan will have an opportunity to open new production, executive director of the Association of Legal Entities' Engineering Union of Kazakhstan, Timurlan Altaev said speaking at a meeting of the association in Astana.
"Analysis of Tengizchevroil (TCO) tender documents and the potential of other projects show it would be effective to create the following companies in Kazakhstan that may become consumers of the domestic machinery products. These is the organisation of the central point of repair and maintenance of equipment (production of spare parts and large-block repair), drilling waste management (designing and manufacturing drilling fluid plants), design and construction works and rental of down hole drilling equipment," Altaev said.
As reported earlier, in November 2013, the Kazakh government and Tengizchevroil LLP (TCO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that sets out mutual commitments to progress TCO's plans to increase production of Kazakhstan's Tengiz field.
The project envisages the increase of oil production in Tengiz field from 26 million tons to 38 million tons of oil per year.
The MOU signing is an important milestone on the path to a Final Investment Decision for the project by TCO partners.
The MOU aligns the Government of Kazakhstan and TCO on the pursuit of common goals in the development of TCO's Future Growth and Wellhead Pressure Management Projects (FGP and WPMP); and outlines tasks to be executed by the signatories in order to execute FGP and WPMP, Minister of Oil and Gas Uzakbai Karabalin said earlier.
FGP will utilize sour gas re-injection technology used in existing operations to expand production capacity by approximately 12 million tons per year.
Through installation of a central pressure boost facility, WPMP will maintain the volumes and pressure of crude oil delivered by the existing crude oil processing plants. The projects are currently completing the front end engineering and design (FEED) phase.
An oil stabilization plant with capacity of 12 million tons per year, accompanying power units and auxiliary systems will be constructed as part of the implementation of the Future Growth Project (FGP).The raw material will be delivered to the plant through the ring main of the new oil collecting system.
All the associated gas will be injected back into the reservoir with several sour gas injection compressors. As a result of the new project, the recoverable reserves of Tengiz will increase by 100 million tons. Recoverable oil reserves at the field's collector will range from 750 million to 1.1 billion tons (6-9 billion barrels). The total proven reserves of Tengiz amount to three billion tons (26 billion barrels).
Cost of the Future Growth and Wellhead Pressure Management Projects (FGP and WPMP) is estimated at nearly $7-8 billion with completion scheduled between 2017 and 2019.
The Tengiz oil field, opened in 1979, is one of the deepest and largest oil fields in the world. The width of the collector is 19 kilometers (12 miles) and the length is 21 kilometers (13 miles).
In spite of technological problems, industrial oil production began in 1991 with commissioning of the Tengiz oil and gas processing plant and enterprise on April 6. Two years later, on April 6, 2013 Tengizshevroil LLC was created based on an agreement between Kazakhstan and Chevron.
Oil production at Tengiz has increased by almost 26 times since operations commenced. Today this field provides about 30 percent of domestic oil production.
Tengizchevroil partners include Chevron, 50 percent; KazMunaiGas, 20 percent; ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc., 25 percent; and LUKArco, 5 percent.
Translated by M.L.
Edited by S.M.