The $50bn Kashagan oil project in Kazakhstan is likely to be delayed by two more years while 200km of pipeline is replaced, in a further blow for the companies developing the largest oilfield outside the Middle East. Erbolat Dossayev, Kazakhstan’s minister for economy and budget planning, told the FT that he expected production to start at the end of next year at the earliest – but that it could be delayed until 2016. It is the first public admission by the government that the project will not only fail to produce oil this year but may not resume production until 2016. “It will be two years,” added one industry official. It is a blow for the consortium of companies – including ExxonMobil , Royal Dutch Shell , Total , and CNPC – which have invested some $50bn in the project so far in the hope that it would one […]