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Talk about resuming oil production at Kashagan premature

Business Materials 4 March 2014 14:51 (UTC +04:00)
Talking about the resumption of production at the Kashagan field is premature,
Talk about resuming oil production at Kashagan premature

Astana, Kazakhstan, March 4

By Daniyar Mukhtarov - Trend:

Talking about the resumption of production at the Kashagan field is premature, Chairman of Board of the Kazakh national oil and gas company KazMunaiGas, Sayat Mynbayev said at a briefing held at the Central Communications Service under the president of RK on March 4.

The issue will become clearer when the conclusion of an expert commission examining the pipeline leakage is ready, he said.

"This is likely to be ready at the end of March, therefore it is too early to talk about the costs and timing of the resumption of oil production at Kashagan," Mynbaev said.

As yet it is not known whether a complete or partial replacement of pipes will be carried out. The KazMunaiGas National Company will bear all the costs of the project in accordance with their share in the consortium, Mynbayev said.

Oil production at Kashagan started on September 11, 2013, but on Sept. 24 its operation was suspended after a gas leak appeared in the ground pipeline stretching from Island D to the Bolashak plant.

Production was resumed, but again suspended on Oct. 9 after showing another leak.

Initially, it was assumed that the production volume at Kashagan would reach eight million tons of oil in 2014. This will increase to 12 million tons in 2015 and allow Kazakhstan to join the top 10 largest oil producing countries.

Kashagan is a large oil and gas field in Kazakhstan located in northerly part of the Caspian Sea. Its geological reserves are estimated at 4.8 billion tons of oil. Total oil reserves amount to 38 billion barrels, some 10 billion being recoverable reserves. There are large natural gas reserves at the Kashagan field of over one trillion cubic meters.

Edited by S.M.
Translated by S.I.

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