Kashagan Pushing for 370,000 bpd
Friday 14 October 2016
Partners at the giant Kashagan oilfield development in the Caspian Sea are pushing for 370,000 barrels per day of output by the end of the year as the first crude export has been completed, Italian major Eni said.
The 16.81% partner in the Kazakhstan development confirmed on Friday news that surfaced during the week that the field was finally up and running again following a shut-down to replace pipelines.
Eni said the “first batch of export crude oil has been shipped from the onshore processing plant” after the field recently reopened.
Kazakhstan Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said earlier this week that the oilfield started early production at a rate of 90,000 barrels per day from four wells.
Eni added on Friday: “Production is expected to gradually increase up to a first level of 180,000 (bpd), with a target level of 370,000 (bpd) to be achieved by the end of next year.”
The $50 billion development, which was to start early production more than a decade ago and encountered technical problems at a delayed launch in late 2013, is feeding the Bolashak plant and will soon see exports via the KazTrans storage facility,
The Kashagan development first started production in 2013, but output was halted within weeks of its launch due to leaks in pipelines taking the gas to onshore processing facilities.
The North Caspian Operating Company consortium working on the project is made up of ExxonMobil, Eni, Shell, Total, China National Petroleum Corporation, Inpex and KazMunaiGas.
Kashagan is one of the world’s biggest discoveries in recent decades, with reserves of about 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil.