Minister: Kazakhstan to start oil production at Kashagan field by October 2013
Commercial oil production at Kashagan oil and gas field in Kazakhstan will start no later than October of 2013 and perhaps even earlier, Kazinform reported with the reference to Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin.
“In general, the project is ready for 98 percent. We examined the readiness of the islands from which oil will go. We hope that oil production will start in October. It will be great if it starts earlier,” Karabalin, who is on business trip to Atyrau region where Kashagan field is located, said.
The Minister said that the contractors are working very hard and the equipment testing is encouraging.
Kashagan is one of the largest fields discovered in the past 40 years. According to the analysts it has the potential to unite the top five largest oil companies in the world. Kazakh geologists estimate geological oil reserves at 4.8 billion tons.
According to the project operator, total oil reserves are 38 billion barrels (six billion tons), with a recoverable volume of about 10 billion barrels. Natural gas reserves are estimated at over one trillion cubic meters.
At present the Kashagan project participants are Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Total and KazMunaiGas, which owns equal shares (16.81 per cent), as well as ConocoPhillips – 8.4 percent and Japan’s Inpex – 7.55 percent.
