Oil production commencement at Kashagan oilfield is scheduled to the year 2008, reportedly said Lezzet kiinov, deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources of Kazakhstan, in Baku at В"Sustainable development of oil&gas operations in Caspian SeaВ" conference.
В"I would love to underline this date as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline mainly accounts for oil from the very fieldВ", - he said.
He also said at Kashagan today three artificial islands are laid to produce oil from, as well as pipelines and other infrastructure to transport and process oil.
Kazakh official said Kazakhstan produced some 63mt of oil in 2005 and 11.5mt have been processed at oil refineries. В"Kazakhstan now is upgrading its oil refineries to raise the oil products qualityВ", - he added.
Alongside, Kazakhstan is reportedly talking to Transneft on raising transfer capacity from 15 to 25mt.
Further, several days ago a China-Kazakhstan pipeline has been commissioned to transport 10mt of oil with extension to 20mt.