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News 2015

Kashagan

Standard & Poor's rating agency excluded Kashagan project from the factors, taken into account for Kazakhstan’s GDP forecasts, said Karen Vartapetov, Deputy Director of Public Finances Group of S&P. "We are no more optimistic about this project, because it was delayed several times.

Therefore, it will be rather "pleasant" addition to the current model of economic growth, but now we don’t use it in our ranking", - Mr.Vartapetov said at S & P Conference “Kazakhstan in the new economic conditions", held on Tuesday. 

He also noted out that over the past 5-6 years, the prospects of putting Kashagan field into operation affected the assessment of the economic growth perspectives of the Republic of Kazakhstan. "Now we believe that putting Kashagan into operation stands outside our rating horizon. For two years, at least, not for the next two years. If the situation would develop better than we think, then it is certainly a reason to reconsider some assumptions that underlie the forecast,"- he added.

Kashagan is the largest oil and gas field in Kazakhstan, located in the Northern part of Caspian Sea. Geological reserves are estimated at 4.8 billion tons of oil. Total oil reserves amount to 38 billion barrels. Its commercial resources, according to the experts, are within 9-13 billion barrels of oil. There is also a large natural gas reserves, exceeding 1 trillion cubic meters. 

Currently, shareholders of NCOC are: Agip Caspian Sea B.V. (16.81%), KMG Kashagan B.V. (16.88%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. (16.81%), Inpex NorthCaspian Sea Ltd. (7.56%), Shell Kazakhstan Development B.V. (16.81%), Total Kazakhstan EP (16.81%) and CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. (8,33%). As it is known, the production at Kashagan started on September 11, 2013. However, on September 24, during the scheduled check-up of the pipeline, running from island D to Bolashak plant, he found the gas leak.

Production at Kashagan has been suspended. After completion of repair works in October during the scheduled check-up of the pipeline, the leak traces were revealed. The cause of the gas leak was pipeline cracking under influence of sulfide compounds. In future, the Government of Kazakhstan expects to resume the production at the field by the end of 2016-beginning of 2017, reports KazTAG.