Concept to expand Karachaganak oil project may be drafted before year end

A concept to expand the oil and gas Karachaganak project may be drafted before the end of the year, according to the country’s Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin. “The project is expected to be expanded; the concept of expansion is likely to be drafted before the end of the year (…) the current status of the project is very satisfying. It’s one of the best projects (…) it’s a project that clearly proves that substantial investments into Kazakhstan-based oilfields can and have been recouped. The investors have recouped their investments and can now rely on remarkable revenues”, he said. “If you remember, from this point on the PSA envisages that the oil revenues will be more favorable for Kazakhstan”, he emphasized. Late June 2012 Kazakhstan purchased a 10% share in the KPO consortium. 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. KPO is a joint company of BG Group (29.25 percent), Eni (29.25 percent), Chevron (18 percent), Lukiol (13.5 percent) and KazMunaiGas (10 percent). According to the PSA, the consortium shall be running the project until 2038. “The current production output of liquid hydrocarbons at Karachaganak stands at 10-12 million tons. 7-8 billion cubic meters of gas is supplied to the Orenburg-based gas processing facility; the processed gas is brought back to Kazakhstan to feed northern regions of the country. We have an agreement with Russia’s Gazprom to bring back the entire volume of the processed gas to Kazakhstan”, Tengrinews.kz reported in April 2013, citing the then KazMunaiGas National Oil Company’s Chairman of the Board Lyazzat Kiinov as saying.