Kazakhstan begins oil production at Kashagan

The first barrels of oil have been extracted in the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan's sector of the Caspian Sea, reports the press service of the consortium of the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC.)

Earlier, it was reported that the field was scheduled to begin oil production at Kashagan on September 9. Kashagan is the largest oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea. Geological reserves are estimated at 4.8 billion tons of oil. Common oil reserves total 38 billion barrels, with about 10 billion barrels recoverable. There are also large reserves of natural gas - more than 1 trillion cubic meters in Kashagan.

Originally, it was planned to start production from the field in 2005. The field was opened in 2000. Total investment in the project has amounted to $10 billion. However, numerous technical problems led to the postponement and increased the cost of the project to more than $ 40 billion.

"KazMunaiGas”, the Italian Eni SpA, the U.S. ExxonMobil Corp., The British- Dutch Royal Dutch Shell PLC, French Total SA and Japan's Inpex are involved in the project. On 7 September, it was announced that a 8.33 % interest in the project was bought by the Chinese CNPC from "KazMunaiGas". Earlier, the head of KMG stated that it was planned to increase the volume of oil production from Kashagan in 2013 from 1.5 million to three million tons, the website of "Novosti- Kazakhstan " reported.

As expected, the oil from Kashagan will be transported  through the port of Novorossiysk.-02D-