BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 11. The volume of oil and condensate production in Kazakhstan slightly decreased from January through September 2022, Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said at the government meeting, Trend reports via the government.
According to Akchulakov, this figure amounted to 61.9 million tons (down by one percent in annual terms), of which 21.5 million tons accounted for oil production at the Tengiz field (growth of 13.6 percent), and 8.5 million tons - of oil production at the Karachaganak field (remaining unchanged year on year).
He noted that the volume of oil production at Kashagan equaled 8.7 million tons, thus decreasing by 17 percent due to the failure of the gas separation unit at the Bolashak Plant, which took place in August this year.
The operator is carrying out repair work to restore the production level as soon as possible, and currently, the field is functioning at half its capacity, the minister also said.
Oil export for nine months of this year amounted to 46.8 million tons of oil, down by four percent compared to the same period in 2021, Akchulakov noted.
According to him, only one out of three remote mooring devices is working at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPS). Due to the repair work at Kashagan field, the operation of one CPS tanker is sufficient for current volumes. The work of the consortium is expected to be fully restored in October this year.
As for the gas industry, here, according to the minister, the volume of gas production from January through September of this year amounted to 39.4 billion m3 of gas, which is a growth of 0.6 percent on annual basis.
Commercial gas production amounted to 21.1 billion m3, exceeding the target volume by 6.6 percent. Domestic consumption of commercial gas amounted to 12.7 billion m3, up by 1.6 percent compared to the first nine months in 2021. Gas exports lowered by 33.3 percent year on year and amounted to 4.6 billion m3.
The priority is to provide gas to the domestic market before export. The production volume of liquefied petroleum gas for the domestic market amounted to 1.27 million tons, which is a decline of 4.5 percent compared to the first nine months of last year, added Akchulakov.