Kazakhstan, Astana, May 18/ Trend, A.Maratov/
One reason for the withdrawal of "Exploration Development" JSC of KazMunaiGas (KMG) from the negotiation process on Akkas field development project in Iraq is the lack of a single position of central and local Iraqi authorities on this issue, the head of KMG Askar Balzhanov said on Tuesday.
"One of the reasons for our withdrawal from the Akkas project in Iraq is that the local authority, where the field is located, and the central government of Iraq had different points of view on the project. And this disagreement caused our withdrawal," said Balzhanov.
Previously Managing Director on Business Development of KMG Dustan Abdulgafarov said that the conditions put forward by the Iraqi side did not satisfy the company despite that KMG has won the tender. "This is a normal practice and there is nothing serious in this," said Abdulgafarov.
In October 2010 KMG EP, together with KOGAS (the "Consortium"), won a tender for development of Iraq's Akkas gas field. The Consortium has held negotiations with the Government of Iraq with the objective of signing a contract to develop the Akkas field.
KMG EP is among the top three Kazakh oil and gas producers. The overall production in 2010 was 13.3mt (an average of 270kbopd) of crude oil, including the Company's share in Kazgermunai, CCEL, PKI and NBK. The total volume of proved and probable reserves, as at the end of 2010 was 232mt (1.7bn bbl), including shares in the associates - about 2.2bln barrels.