Production on Kashagan field to start in the second half of 2014, forecasts EIA

Oil production on the giant field Kashagan in Kazakhstan suspended on October 9, 2013 because of gas leakage could be resumed in the second half of 2014. But until the end of 2015 it will be below the first stage’s goal of 370,000 barrels a day, according to the forecast of the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).

If the production on Kashagan resumes only in 2015, then the forecast of crude oil production in Kazakhstan will be reduced to 110,000 barrels a day with two years to come, reads the monthly forecast of the energy sector released on Tuesday.

The commercial production started on Kashagan on September 11, 2013 after several years of delay. But in the second half of September the production was suspended, because of the gas kick.

The production resumed on October 6, 2013, but it was suspended again on October 9, 2013 and was not resumed since that time. Two days after its launch KazMunaiGas President said that production on the Kashagan totaled 61,000 barrels a day.

In 2014 Kazakhstan hopes to extract 8 million tons of oil on Kashagan and by 2015 it planned to join the top ten oil producing countries at the expense of this project.

KazMunaiGas owns 16.81% share in Kashagan, Italian Eni, US ExxonMobil, British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and French Total have the same shares. Japanese Inpex owns 7.65% shares. In early September 2013 Chinese CNPC joined the consortium with 8.33% share, reported http://ru.reuters.com.--0--