BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 8
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The overall progress of the new onshore Water Treating Facilities Project of North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) is 22 percent, NCOC official told Trend.
In June 2020 Petrofac’s Engineering & Production Services (EPS) division, in a joint venture with Isker (Kazakhstan) has secured an Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Pre-commissioning and Commissioning (EPCC) contract worth approximately $135 million for New Water Treating Facilities for Kazakhstan’s North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC).
NCOC officials noted that the company is committed to conducting its operations in a manner that supports the sustainable use of local resources.
“For that purpose, a new onshore Water Treating Facilities Project aims to further reduce water intake from the Astrakhan-Mangyshlak pipeline up to 70 percent and enhance the quality of water discharged into evaporation ponds by extra treatment the water from Onshore Processing Facility,” the official said.
The official emphasized that the environmental effect on treated wastewater quality consists of the reduction of pollutants such as methanol, oil, H2S, iron and suspended solids.
“To date, personnel mobilization has been completed, detail design engineering of a new treatment plant is ongoing as well as procurement and manufacturing of equipment. The overall progress of the project is 22 percent. The contractor started major site construction works. The Water Treatment Facility is expected to be in operation in early 2023,” the official said.
The North Caspian Project is the first major offshore oil and gas development in Kazakhstan. It covers three fields: Kashagan, Kairan, and Aktoty.
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 (1-2 billion tons) of oil.
The first commercial oil production started at Kashagan in 2016. The project operator North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) shipped the first million tons of oil for export in early 2017. NCOC has reached a record-breaking volume of oil extraction at the field (390,000-400,000 barrels a day) in 2019.
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