Kazakh National Fund to provide $4 billion loan for Kashagan oil&gas field

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 29 / Trend E. Kosolapova/

The Kazakh National Fund will provide the Kazakh National Oil and Gas Company KazMunaiGas with a $4 billion loan for financing Kashagan oil and gas field in 2013-2015, the Kazakh President's press-service reported.

"The decision on a $4 billion bonded loan ...was taken for supporting Kashagan project. It is planned that KazMunaiGas will be financed in two tranches in 2013 and 2015," the presidential press-service reported following a Council for the management of the National Fund meeting under the chairmanship of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Kashagan is Kazakhstan's super-giant oil and gas field located in the north of the Caspian Sea. According to the Kazakh geologists, geological reserves at Kashagan are estimated at 4.8 billion tons of oil.

Up to 50 million tons of oil will be extracted in the first stage of experimental-industrial development in the field annually. Oil export from the field can be doubled in the second phase scheduled for 2018 -2019.

At present, the largest participants of the Kashagan project are the companies Eni (roughly 16.81 percent), KMG (roughly 16.81 percent), Total (roughly 16.81 percent), ExxonMobil (roughly 16.81 percent), and Royal Dutch Shell (roughly 16.81 percent). Other participants are ConocoPhillips (8.4 percent) and Inpex (7.56 percent). The project is managed by North Caspian Operating Company, or NCOC.