ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 3. Kazakhstan has ended the first quarter of 2024 with significant achievements in its energy sector, Trend reports.
The country, which has huge oil and gas reserves, continues to develop its production and geography of exports.
In 2023, oil production in Kazakhstan amounted to about 90 million tons, although it was initially planned to produce 92–93 million tons of oil. In 2024, the country intends to produce 90.3 million tons of oil. Kazakhstan expects to produce 88.3 million tons of oil from the three largest fields (Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak) alone.
In addition, in 2023, 58.838 million cubic meters of natural gas were produced in Kazakhstan; production volume increased by 10.5 percent compared to 2022. During the year, the fields produced 34.548 million cubic meters of associated petroleum gas.
Thus, in the first quarter of 2024, Kazakhstan signed a number of agreements, both on the supply of energy resources to new markets and on increasing supplies to current sales markets.
Oil industry
KazMunayGas
KazMunayGas will have produced about 23.5 million tons of oil and gas condensate in 2023. The preliminary volume of oil transportation for 2023 was 80.3 million tons, with 18.5 million tons of oil processed in refineries. At the same time, operational records show that the company's sales last year exceeded 8.3 trillion tenge (approximately $18.2 billion).
As Chairman of the Board of KMG Magzum Mirzagaliyev said, it is planned to drill three exploration wells in 2024 (one well in the Kyzylorda region at the Turgay Paleozoy site, pre-salt drilling at the Karaton Podsolevoy structure, and the and the Abay area in the Caspian Sea).
On March 11, SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) and KazMunayGas signed an agreement to increase the volume of transportation of Kazakh oil through Azerbaijan to 2.2 million tons per year from the current 1.5 million tons.
- As Magzum Mirzagaliyev told Trend in an exclusive interview on March 11, SOCAR will provide KazMunayGas with proposals for the Baku-Supsa route within a month.
Moreover, according to him, KazMunayGas expects to launch a project to expand production at the Tengiz field in 2025.
Other achievements and decisions
- Kazakhstan began to consider the possibility of transporting oil via the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline.
- The launch of the future expansion project (FGP) of Kazakhstan's Tengiz field was postponed until the second quarter of 2025. At the same time, the launch of the wellhead pressure management project (WPMP) has also been postponed. The launch time is set for the second quarter of 2024.
- Kazakhstan and Croatia are bargaining to boost the volume of Kazakh oil sent to Eastern European countries through the Croatian Janaf oil pipeline. One alternative for expanding export volumes could be to deliver energy to the island of Krk (in northern Croatia) and then transfer it via the Adria oil pipeline to the remainder of Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovenia.
- Kazakhstan has extended the agreement on oil supplies to Germany via the Druzhba oil pipeline for six months (from January through June 2024). The volume of supplies will be 100,000 tons monthly.
- The volume of transportation of Kazakh oil from the port of Aktau for export amounted to 287,000 tons in January 2024, which is 76,000 tons more compared to the same period last year. In particular, the volume of oil transportation towards the port of Baku from the port of Aktau increased by 60,000 tons and amounted to 116,000 tons.
- The volume of transportation of Kazakh oil through the system of trunk oil pipelines of Transneft PJSC towards the Adamova Zastava oil delivery point for further delivery to Germany amounted to 100,000 tons in January 2024.
- On February 14, Kazakhstan intends to fulfill its production obligations under the OPEC+ agreement. The Ministry of Energy noted that following the results of the 36th OPEC+ ministerial meeting, held on November 30, 2023, Kazakhstan and other OPEC+ member countries accepted new voluntary commitments, starting in January 2024, to maintain stability and balance in the global oil market.
- Kazakhstan has exported about 338,000 tons of oil and petroleum products to Azerbaijan in 2023. This volume exceeds the figure for 2022 by 38.8 percent. At the same time, the total value of exported oil and petroleum products amounted to $169.8 million.
- Crude oil production by Tengizchevroil LLP (TCO, a joint venture between Kazakhstan and Chevron) amounted to 28.9 million tons (230.6 million barrels) in 2023. The overall intensity of air emissions decreased to the lowest level since 2000.
- Kazakhstan earned $170 million in 2023 thanks to the transit of Russian oil to China. The agreement on the transit of Russian oil to China was signed for 10 years, which ended in 2023. Kazakhstan will earn about $1.7 billion directly and indirectly through exchange operations over the entire period.
- The volume of transportation of Kazakh oil through the system of trunk oil pipelines of Transneft PJSC towards the Adamova Zastava oil delivery point for further delivery to Germany amounted to 100,000 tons in February 2024.
- Kazakhstan aims to extend the transportation of Russian oil to China for another decade. In this regard, the Majilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan ratified the protocol signed on June 16, 2023, in St. Petersburg with amendments to the Kazakh-Russian intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of transporting Russian oil through the territory of Kazakhstan to China. The protocol for the agreement will then be sent to the Senate (upper house) for review.
Gas industry
QazaqGaz
- Kazakhstan's QazaqGaz (national company) and UCC Holding (Qatar) signed an agreement on the joint implementation of the project for the construction of the second line of the Beineu-Bozoy-Shymkent gas pipeline with a capacity of 15 bcm per year.
As part of another agreement, the parties will jointly construct two gas processing plants with a capacity of 1 billion bcm per year, and 2.5 bcm per year at the Kashagan field.
Another agreement between the parties provides for attracting investments for the construction of a new compressor station “KS-14” and the main gas pipeline “KS-14 – Kostanay” in the Aktobe and Kostanay regions of Kazakhstan.
- QazaqGaz and STRYDE (a subsidiary of BP) have signed a cooperation agreement on the creation of an Advanced Center for Processing and Managing Geological Data in Kazakhstan.
Other achievements and decisions
- At the beginning of the year, KazMunayGas announced that it plans to develop a gas strategy, within the framework of which it plans to increase natural gas production to 6.7 bcm per year by 2030. At the same time, this production volume does not include the largest fields: Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan.
- The Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, together with the shareholders of the Kashagan field, have reached a preliminary agreement on the supply of liquefied petroleum gas to the domestic market.
- Kazakhstan's Samruk-Kazyna, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, and the Qatari company Urbacon Concessions Investments WLL, part of the Power International Holding WLL group, have signed an agreement on the construction of a combined cycle power plant in the Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan with a capacity of about 1,100 MW.
- Samruk-Kazyna, the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, and the Qatari Urbacon Concessions Investments WLL have signed a Memorandum of understanding in Doha. The agreement between the parties involves the construction of a gas processing plant with a capacity of 6 billion cubic meters.
- KazMunayGas announced that the production volume at Kazakhstan's Rozhkovskoye field will be about 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year after full-scale development of the field.
- Kazakhstan may begin purchasing gas and electricity from Turkmenistan. There have been no official pricing bids from Turkmenistan. Kazakh enterprises will investigate this matter.
- Kazakhstan plans to increase the level of gas supply to the population to 61.1 percent by the end of 2024. Today, 60 percent of the population, or 12 million people, have access to natural gas.
- Kazakhstan is going to build a new gas pipeline from the Aktobe to Kostanay region. A feasibility study for the project has already been developed and sent for examination.
Refineries and plants
- Kazakhstan's Samruk Kazyna and Italian company Ansaldo Energia SpA have signed a cooperation agreement. The agreement provides for the supply of gas turbines for the project "Reconstruction of Almaty CHPP-3 (Combined Heat and Power Plant)" and cooperation on long-term service and personnel training.
- KMG and Chinese CITIC Resources Holdings Limited have agreed to begin the project to expand the capacity of the Aktau bitumen plant (CASPI BITUM). The project is currently in the design stage. Thus, the parties agreed to begin the construction phase before the end of 2024, with the completion of construction at the beginning of 2025.
- Kazakhstan's Atyrau Oil Refinery has processed almost 5.5 million tons of oil in 2023. The average processing depth increased to a record 82.1 percent.