NUR-SULTAN
Russia’s oil major LUKOIL plans to participate in the development of two offshore oilfields in Kazakhstan, expanding its presence in Central Asian country’s energy sector.
“We are starting the development of the Kalamkas-More and Khazar fields. A strategic partner from the Russian side has been identified – this is the LUKOIL company. The total cost of the project will be about $5 billion,” Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told the 17th Forum of Interregional Cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia.
LUKOIL holds assets in the Khvalynskoye (50 percent), Centralnaya (25 percent), Zhenis (50 percent) projects as well as in Tengiz (5 percent), Karachaganak (13.5 percent) and the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (12.5 percent).
Kalamkas-More is a large offshore field in the Caspian Sea and is part of the same contract area as the Kashagan field, while Khazar field is included in the contract area of the Pearls project abandoned by Shell in 2019.
Kazakhstan is also interested in the participation of Russian energy companies in the development of two gas fields – Khvalynskoye and Imashevskoye, the president said.
“It is important to come to an early settlement of commercial issues with (Russia’s gas monopoly) Gazprom,” Tokayev said.
The Imashevskoye gas condensate field is located on the border of Kazakhstan and Russia, five kilometres from the village of Zhylandy in the Kurmangazinsky district of the Atyrau region. The Khvalynskoye oil and gas condensate field is located in the northern part of the Caspian Sea, 260 kilometres from the Russian town of Astrakhan.
In March, Kazakhstan’s national company KazMunayGas and LUKOIL said they planned joint exploration of the offshore section of the Al-Farabi oil field in the Caspian Sea. The sides signed a protocol and said they would set up a joint venture, in which the Kazakh side was expected to own 50.01 percent.
Kazakhstan produced 56.1 million tonnes of oil and gas condensate in the first eight months of 2021. Most of Kazakhstan’s oil and condensate output comes from the Tengiz, Kashagan and Karachaganak oilfields.
In 2021, Kazakhstan expects to produce 86 million tonnes of oil, including 25.3 million tonnes on Tengiz and 14.5 million tonnes on Kashagan. Oil exports are projected at 67.5 million tonnes. In 2020, oil production in the country was 85.7 million tonnes.