Baku, Azerbaijan, May 1
By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:
China may increase its share in Kazakhstan’s oil sector, both in terms of production and in terms of oil refining, Oleg Egorov, an energy expert and chief researcher at the Institute of Economics of Kazakhstan, told Trend.
"In addition to the share in oil production at the Kashagan field, Chinese oil companies in Kazakhstan own certain reserves in small fields, including a 50 percent stake in the Mangyshlak field and a 67 percent stake in the Kumkol field, and the share of Chinese companies in such fields is expected to grow in the future," said Egorov.
He also stressed that currently the capacity of the Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline amounts to nearly 15 million tons per year, and that the countries may increase the capacity of the pipeline to 20 or even 25 million tons per year.
"An important step made by the Chinese National Oil and Gas Corporation in expanding its participation in the oil sector of Kazakhstan was to purchase a stake in the Kashagan field. Chinese operators have paid great attention to the development of the Kashagan field, which has over billion tons of oil reserves. The possibility of acquiring a share in oil production in the Kashagan field for the Chinese companies appeared after the Conoco Phillips company decided to sell its stake, which amounted to 8.33 percent. The stake was acquired by KazMunayGaz and resold to the Chinese National Oil and Gas Corporation," Yegorov said.
Chinese companies are also involved in the processing of heavy oil in Kazakhstan. They own a bitumen production plant, which processes heavy oil extracted from Kazakhstan’s Karazhambas and Kalamkas fields, according to the expert.
The plant produces about 400,000 tons of bitumen per year.
"Fifty percent of the Shymkent oil refinery's stake also belongs to China," Yegorov said, adding that Chinese companies are slowly entering the oil production and processing spheres of Kazakhstan.
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