Oil production at Kazakhstan’s huge Kashagan field, halted since mid-October because of a dangerous gas leak, won’t resume before next year, according to people familiar with the matter, casting a cloud over one of the world’s biggest energy projects. Equipment needed to inspect a leaking pipeline connecting the field in the Caspian Sea to an onshore processing unit won’t arrive on site before mid-November, the people said. The inspection will determine how much of the pipeline must be replaced, and once it is completed a preliminary report on how to conduct repair work won’t be submitted to Kashagan operators before late December, they said. NCOC, the consortium of oil companies operating the field, said it was too early to say when production—which exceeded 75,000 barrels a day at the time of the shutdown—might restart. “No prediction can be made,” a NCOC spokesman said. The stoppage at Kashagan after barely […]