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By Trend

Since the resumption of production in 2016 until the end of 2018, more than 22.4 million tons of oil was produced at the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan’s sector of the Caspian Sea, the field operator North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) told Trend.

At the same time, the company produced more than 6.5 billion cubic meters of gas and over one million ton of sulfur at Kashagan.

"We are making every effort to reach full design capacity of 370,000 barrels per day in the shortest possible time," NCOC noted.

It should be noted that Kashagan oil field in the northern part of the Caspian Sea is one of the largest oil fields discovered in the last 40 years. Its recoverable reserves are estimated at approximately 9-13 billion barrels of oil. In 2017, NCOC produced 8.29 million tons of oil from the field.

NCOC shareholders are KMG Kashagan B.V. (16.9 percent), Shell Kazakhstan Development B.V. (16.8 percent), Total E&P Kazakhstan (16.8 percent), Agip Caspian Sea B.V. (16.8 percent), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. (16.8 percent), CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. (8.3 percent) and Inpex North Caspian Sea Ltd. (7.6 percent).

The company also informed that in addition to Kashagan, there are other opportunities for further growth within the license block of the North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement. This is the development of fields such as Aktoty, Kairan and Kalamkas-Sea.

"The main concept is a joint development of the Kalamkas-Sea field and the neighboring Khazar field of Caspian Meruerty Operating Company (Production Sharing Agreement for the Zhemchuzhina block). Joint development will maximize synergy and increase the economic profitability of the Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar projects," the message reads.

Preparatory engineering work is ongoing and NCOC plans to provide a proposed development plan in the second half of 2019.

The concept of joint development is widely used in other, more developed, oil and gas regions (the North Sea in the UK and the Gulf Coast in the US) for the development of smaller and more profitable deposits. However, the joint development of the Kalamkas and Khazar fields will be the first such project in Kazakhstan.

NCOC also noted that the company plans to attract local suppliers of goods, works and services for all future projects.

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