BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 6
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
Kazakhstan's North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), which operates Kashagan oil and gas field launched implementation of a project for installation of new wastewater treatment units, Trend reports citing the Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources.
As soon as the project’s implementation will be completed, the volume of pollutants in the water supplied with the produced oil will decrease, thereby the impact on the environment will be reduced.
During the construction of water treatment facilities, the issues of applying advanced technologies in environmental protection were taken into consideration. This project is expected to solve both production and environmental issues.
Now water purification at the plant will be carried out in two phases: during the production and at the new facilities. As a result of purification, the content of methanol in water will decrease by 65 percent, oil by 95 percent, hydrogen sulfide by 75 percent.
Currently, the main construction work has begun at the site of the future wastewater treatment units. The work is expected to be completed in December 2022 and the wastewater treatment units will be commissioned in early 2023.
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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