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Kazakhstan expects Kashagan field to produce 370 kb/d by late 2017

Kazakhstan expects the first phase of the Kashagan oil field to achieve a production of up to 370,000 bbl/d of crude oil by the end of 2017. The field entered production in September 2013 but operations were suspended a few weeks later due to leaking pipelines. The field operator, the North Caspian Operating Company consortium (NCOC) will have to replace the total network of oil and gas pipelines (200 km) before resuming production, in the second half of 2016. Production should restart at a pace of 90,000 bbl/d in the first few months and would soon be doubled to 180,000 bbl/d to eventually reach 370,000 bbl/d in late 2017. Then, the consortium will decide whether implementing a second phase of development. The development of the Kashagan field is crucial for Kazakhstan, as its crude oil production is declining, from nearly 83 Mt in 2013 to 81 Mt in 2014 (forecast of 80.5 Mt in 2015).

NCOC groups together with Kazakhstan national oil and gas company KazMunaiGas (KMG, 16.87%), Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total (16.8% each), CNPC (8.33%) and Inpex (7.6%). The consortium initially expected to produce up to 8 Mt in 2014 at Kashagan.