Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

The Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan plans to reach output level standing at 1.1 million tons on its supergiant Kashagan oil and gas field by late 2016.

Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that the country produced more than 450,000 tons of oil as of November 19, while the forecasted level for the year-end stands at 1.1 million.

He mentioned that the first volume of oil was produced at the field on October 14, while the first batch of commercial oil was filled to the pipeline system of KazTransOil and Caspian pipeline Consortium on October 14.

Bozumbayev said that the project reached the level of commercial production on November 1, with the volume of extraction exceeding 75,000 barrels per day. The production is forecasted to range from 4 to 8 million tons of oil in 2017.

The field, first discovered in 2000, is developed by Kazakhstan’s state oil company, KazMunayGas, and a consortium of some of the world’s biggest oil companies, including ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Kashagan is considered to be the world's largest discovery in the last 30 years, combined with the Tengiz Field. The reservoir lies at the depth of some 4,200 meters below the shallow waters of the northern part of the Caspian Sea.

The geological reserves of Kashagan are estimated at 4.8 billion tons of oil, while total oil reserves amount to 38 billion barrels with some 10 billion out of them being recoverable reserves. Moreover, there are also large natural gas reserves at Kashagan field (over one trillion cubic meters).

Kashagan is projected to increase oil production in the country, but it is considered to be a negative factor for the global oil market which suffers from oil glut.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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