Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 10
By Nigar Guliyeva – Trend:
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed the Additional Protocol to the Protocol to the Agreement between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation on the delineation of the bottom of the northern part of the Caspian Sea in order to implement sovereign rights to subsoil use signed in 1998.
The deal was signed within the framework of the XIV Forum of Interregional Cooperation of Kazakhstan and Russia in Chelyabinsk Nov.9, the Kazakh Energy Ministry said in a statement.
The protocol provides for an increase in the contract territory for the Kurmangazy project and provision of an additional exploration period to the operator for a period of six years with the option of a subsequent extension for four years.
Authorized organizations for the Kurmangazy project are a wholly-owned subsidiary of JSC NC KazMunaiGaz - LLP MNK KazMunayTeniz (50%) and Rosneft Oil Company (50%). The field is located in the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea.
Kazakhstan, holding 3 percent of the world's oil reserves, is among the top 15 countries in the world in terms of proven oil reserves.
Oil and gas bearing areas occupy 62 percent of the country's territory, and have 172 oil fields, of which more than 80 are under development. More than 90 percent of the oil reserves are concentrated in the 15 largest fields.
The fields are located on the territory of six of the fourteen regions of Kazakhstan. These are the Aktyubinsk, Atyrau, West Kazakhstan, Karaganda, Kyzylorda and Mangistau regions. About 70 percent of hydrocarbon reserves are concentrated in the west of Kazakhstan.