CNPC: Looks at Kazakh Asset Purchase

China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) has shown interest to the project Eurasia on the territory of Kazakhstan, Energy First Vice Minister Uzakbai Karabalin said on September 29 in Astana.

“CNPC has expressed interest to the project. It can become an important aspect of bilateral cooperation between Kazakhstan and China in oil and gas sector,” the Kazakh minister said.

According to Karabalin, the project is able to bring a fundamentally new contribution to world geological science. “In the long term, Kazakhstan strengthen their capabilities in terms of ensuring the energy security of the entire Asian region,” Karabalin said at the conference Energy Security in the Eurasian Region during the first day of forum Kazenergy.

“CNPC ranked third in the world among the world’s largest oil companies. We have assets in 35 countries,” PetroChina Vice President Lu Gunsiun said. “The company has a total of 91 projects. Now, with low oil prices, this is a good time to buy the new projects. CNPC is constantly engaged in an active search for new projects in all countries. For example, CNPC has shown interest in the project Eurasia, as it has large reserves of hydrocarbons, which have implications for the development of oil production. We declare that we want to participate in project Eurasia.”

PetroChina was established as part of the Chinese state-owned CNPC in November 1999. PetroChina owns the assets for the extraction, refining, petrochemicals and natural gas. The controlling stake is owned PetroChina CNPC.

According to experts, the resource potential of the Caspian region, especially of the Caspian Basin, approximately 40 billion tonnes of equivalent fuel. Scientists predict about twenty largest hydrocarbon fields with reserves of more than 300 million tonnes.

According to the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, in the case of the project Eurasia Kazakhstan’s hydrocarbon reserves will increase by half.

The project Eurasia will consist of three stages. The first involves the collection and processing materials of past years. Second, it is conducting large-scale studies. The latter includes the drilling of a new well of support-parametric Caspian 1.

The estimated cost of the three phases of the project Eurasia is about $500 million. An international consortium of major oil companies could implement this project not only of Kazakhstan and Russia, but also western companies as well as from Japan, Korea and China.

Future participants of the consortium shall be jointly set up a research programme to ensure its financing. At the same time, management of the project will be carried out in Kazakhstan. Work on the project Eurasia is scheduled to begin in 2016.