Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 30
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Kazakhstan has no plans to drill on new oil fields in the Caspian Sea in 2016, the press service of the Kazakh ministry of energy told Trend Dec.30.
"Today, Kazakhstan has no plans to drill on new fields in the Caspian Sea," the ministry said.
Earlier, Kazakhstan repeatedly stated about its intention to significantly increase oil production and in the future to enter the top ten largest oil producers in the world. The majority of offshore oil deposits of Kazakhstan were being developed long ago, and the peak of their production has already passed.
Kazakhstan relates the issue of further increase of hydrocarbon reserves primarily to the resource potential of its sector of the Caspian Sea. In 2014, Eurasia project was launched, which involves the exploration of deep laying horizons of the Caspian Basin, both on land and at sea, located on the territory of Kazakhstan and Russia.
According to experts, the resource potential of the Caspian region, especially the Caspian Basin, is up to 40 billion tons of oil. Nearly 20 large deposits of hydrocarbons are predicted to exist here. In case of implementation of the Eurasia project, Kazakh hydrocarbon reserves may be doubled.
Currently, a consortium for the project is being created, which is planned to be implemented over three to five years, the issues regarding benefits and preferences for potential investors of the project are being worked out.
In addition, projects on the prospective structures "Kurmangyzy", "Pearl", "Zhambyl", "Satpayev", "Nursultan", "Shelly sea", "Abay", the fields of the North-Caspian project, etc. are already being implemented in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea.
According to a statistical review of BP, the proven oil reserves amounted to 30 billion barrels in Kazakhstan in early 2015.
In 2014, crude oil production, including gas condensate in Kazakhstan amounted to 80.826 million tons, which is 1.2 percent less than in 2013.
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