Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 26
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Kazakhstan plans to produce 77 million tons of oil in 2016, Deputy Director General of the Information Oil and Gas Center of Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan Askar Kenzhekhanov said.
He made the remarks Apr. 26 at the SOCAR International Practical Conference on "Caspian Basin and Central Asia: Trade, Logistics, Oil Processing and Oil and Chemistry" in Baku.
He said that in 2015 there was a slowdown in oil production in Kazakhstan amid falling world prices and a little production profitability of several companies in the country related to this fact.
"In 2015, some 79.4 million tons of oil were produced in Kazakhstan, which is 0.5 percent more than the forecasted figures," said Kenzhekhanov. "Gas production amounted to 45.3 billion cubic meters, which is seven percent more than the forecasted figures, as well as five percent higher than in 2014. The forecast for production in 2016 amounts to 77 million tons of oil."
The ministry's representative said that Kazakhstan is working to differentiate the oil supply chains and expects production growth after the work on the "Kashagan" starts.
"It will contribute to the growth of export," Kenzhekhanov said. "We expect that by 2020, Kazakhstan will enter the top ten oil exporters with the production of 130 million tons of oil per year."
In 2015, Kazakhstan exported 60.9 million tons of oil, which accounts for 76.7 percent of the total production (given the planned export volume of 65 million tons). The largest volume of oil was exported via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium - 38 million tons. Some 12.4 million tons of oil were exported via the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, and 4.8 million tons in the Chinese direction. Export by sea totaled 3.1 million tons, while 0.8 million tons of oil were exported by rail. A significant reduction in export by rail is due to the rising cost of oil transportation.
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