Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Kazakhstan will reduce oil production next year, as part of the OPEC and non-cartel members' efforts to stabilize the world energy market.

A meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC +) took place, following which a decision was made to limit the level of production of OPEC + countries for six months starting from January 2019.

"Kazakhstan has expressed its readiness to join this decision and intends to take all necessary measures to achieve its commitments to reduce oil production by 40 thousand barrels per day," the Energy Ministry of Kazakhstan said.

In the fourth quarter of the year, there was a decrease in world oil prices, which, in addition to geopolitical factors, were also affected by growing uncertainty in the global economy, leading to a general decrease in the growth rates of oil and oil products consumption.

In this connection, in order to preserve the balance of the world oil market, OPEC + countries decided to reduce production by 1.2 million barrels/day (800,000 barrels/day for OPEC countries, 400,000 barrels/day for non-oil countries).

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September 10–14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

OPEC's objective is to coordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry.

OPEC consists of 15 countries: Algeria, Angola, Venezuela, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Congo, Kuwait, Qatar (from January 2019 comes out of the alliance), Libya, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Equatorial Guinea and Ecuador. Headquarters is located in Vienna.

In accordance with its Statute, the mission of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.

Oil and gas sector is the major and most rapidly growing industry in Kazakhstan which brings the country a lion's share of its incomes. The importance of Kazakhstan in global energy security is growing. This is due to the increase in supplies of Kazakhstan’s energy resources to the world market.

Kazakhstan is among the top 15 countries in the world for proven oil reserves, with three percent of the world's reserves of ‘black gold’.

Oil and gas bearing areas occupy 62 percent of the country's area and have 172 oil fields, of which more than 80 are under development. More than 90 percent of the oil reserves are concentrated in the 15 largest fields.

Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan are the largest oil fields in Kazakhstan. Three oil giants will be able to bring Kazakhstan's oil production to a new level in the coming years even if new oil fields are not discovered.

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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