Kazakhstan and Russia discuss extending sales contract for Karachaganak gas

Vice Chairman of the Board at Russia’s Gazprom Alexandr Medvedev met Kazakhstan’s Oil Minister Uzakbai Karabalin to discuss extending the agreement on sales of gas coming from the Kazakhstan-based Karachaganak condensed gas field further on to 2038, Russia’s RIA Novosti reports, citing Gazprom’s Press Service.

As Kazakhstan is considering its own gas processing plant in Western Kazakhstan to process gas from Karachaganak, the volumes of gas sent to Russia to be processed at Orenburg-based gas processing plant might be decreased, the country’s media reported earlier.

From January to June 2014 a total of 4 322 million cubic meters of gas were sent to the Orenburg-based gas processing plant from Karachaganak.

When meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital city, the two sides also dwelt on prospects of joint development of Imashevskoye condensed gas field and on prospects of developing gas transportation systems of the two nations. Since 2002 Gazprom of Russia and KazMunaiGas National Oil Company have been cooperating within a JV KazRosGas to sell gas from Karachaganak field, send it to Russia’s Orenburg-based gas treatment facility to be further sold to consumers both in Kazakhstan and Russia.

Karachaganak Petroleum Operating B.V. (KPO) is developing one of the world’s biggest oil and gas condensate field Karachaganak located in north-west Kazakhstan. The field’s area is 280 square kilometers, its reserves are evaluated at over 1.2 billion tons of oil and condensate and over 1.35 trillion cubic meters of gas. According to the PSA, the consortium shall be running the project until 2038.

Imashevskoye field is located 60 km away from Astrakhan (Russia) and 250 km away from Atyrau (Kazakhstan). Its explored reserves are estimated at over 100 billion cubic meters of gas.

Back in 2010 Russia and Kazakhstan signed an intergovernmental agreement on joint geological exploration of the field. KazRosGas acts the project operator.