BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 29
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas Engineering company has been banned from taking part in auctions for procurement of goods and services for Kashagan field, Trend reports citing Kazakh media.
Previously NIPIneftegaz JSC applied to the government regarding the transfer of contracts for Kashagan, where KazMunayGas (KMG) is an affiliated organization, on an uncompetitive basis. However, private business opposed and sent an appeal to the head of state on the issue of preventing competition in the field of engineering services in the oil and gas industry.
The Government of Kazakhstan, addressed the head of state, introduced information on measures to restrict the entrepreneurial activity of the state in terms of introducing a ban on the participation of the quasi-public sector in competitive procurement, in the presence of competitors from the private business, which were approved.
The Ministry of National Economy and the Ministry of Energy proposed to keep the activities of KMG-Engineering only within the framework of KMG projects with a participation share of more than 50 percent, as well as to prohibit project activities in other projects after the completion of all undertaken obligations.
The Kashagan field is one of the three largest oil fields located in the northern part of the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. Its recoverable reserves reach approximately 9-13 billion barrels of oil and it is a part of the North Caspian Project.
The North Caspian Project is developed under the North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement signed by Kazakhstan and an international consortium of major oil and gas companies in 1997.
The consortium includes seven of the world's largest and most experienced energy companies: KazMunayGas (16.88 percent), Eni (16.81 percent), Shell (16.81 percent), ExxonMobil (16.81 percent), Total (16.81 percent), CNPC (8.33 percent) and Inpex (7.56 percent).
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