Category: Central Asia

People wait in line outside a currency exchange office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, August 20, 2015. Kazakhstan’s under-pressure tenge lost more than a quarter of its value on Thursday after the oil producing central Asian nation, hit by a sharp fall in world crude prices, introduced a freely floating exchange rate for the currency. Acting against a backdrop of devaluation and depreciation in the currencies of some of its major trading partners and rivals, Kazakhstan’s government and central bank said the country’s economic policy would henceforth be based on inflation targeting. "This is not a devaluation, this is a transition to a freely floating rate when the market itself determines a balanced exchange rate on the basis of demand and offer," central bank Governor Kairat Kelimbetov told a news conference broadcast from the capital Astana. The official tenge rate tumbled by 26.2 percent to 255.26 per dollar on the Kazakhstan […]

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Kazakhstan allowed its tenge to weaken the most since a devaluation 18 months ago, signaling Central Asia’s biggest crude exporter wants to adjust to declines in the currencies of its top trading partners, China and Russia. The tenge declined 4.4 percent to 197 per dollar by 2:29 p.m. in Almaty. That was the steepest retreat since February 2014 when the central bank, which uses its foreign-currency reserves to manage the exchange rate within a trading band versus the dollar, depreciated it by about 20 percent. Central bank representatives weren’t available to comment when contacted by Bloomberg. Pressure is mounting on countries that trade with China to let their currencies weaken after the yuan slide last week made their exports less competitive. Kazakhstan has also suffered from oil’s 22 percent retreat in the past two months, especially since its northern neighbor and trading partner Russia is allowing the ruble to […]

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Parties to a roundtable discussion on oil spills in Kazakhstan look to response to Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 as a case study. File Photo by UPI/U.S. Coast Guard. ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 24 (UPI) — The government in oil-rich Kazakhstan hosted a roundtable discussion on developing a regional response to spills, the OSCE said Friday. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in coordination with the Kazakh Energy Minister and the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan organized a discussion on how best to plan a regional response to an oil spill program. "Once approved, the regional oil spill plan will be an important tool to ensure that the regional authorities have a system that will ensure effective co-ordination and integration of all relevant resources both from government and private sectors," Peter Taylor, a manager for the regional oil spill response organization, said in a statement. The roundtable brought more […]

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Kazakh government expects oil boom once troubled Kashagan oil field resumes operations. (Photo: North Caspian Operating Co.) Kazakhstan’s government said Wednesday it expects oil production to increase by as much as 30 percent in part because of operations at its giant Kashagan field. Kashagan is among the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October 2013, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. Kazakh Deputy Energy Minister Uzakbai Karabalin told reporters the government in Astana is determined to increase production despite a series of setbacks. "Oil output is expected to reach 630 million barrels in 2017 and 760 million barrels in 2020," he said. "This increase will be due to the expansion project at [onshore oil field] Tengiz and resumption of offshore oil production at Kashagan." Kazakh production […]

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OAO Lukoil is seeking damages from China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. through arbitration proceedings in London, saying the Chinese company breached an agreement to buy 50 percent of a Kazakh Continue Reading

Italian energy company Eni committed to moving forward with developments at Kashagan oil field, one of the largest in the world. (Photo: North Caspian Operating Co.) ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Dec. 22 (UPI) — Italian energy company Eni said Monday it was committed to getting the Kashagan oil project in Kazakhstan, one of the world’s largest, up and running. Eni Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi met in Astana with Kazakh leaders to discuss developments at the offshore Kashagan oil field . Kashagan is among the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October 2013, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. Last week, members of the production consortium, which includes Eni, met with government officials and the North Caspian Operating Co. to review the project. Terms of an agreement charting […]

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4579 Votes REUTERS/Anatoly UstinenkoAn aerial view shows artificial islands on Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian sea, western Kazakhstan, April 7, 2013. Picture taken April 7, 2013. WHEN it was discovered in 2000, the Kashagan oilfield in Kazakhstan’s waters in the northern Caspian Sea was the world’s biggest oil find in three decades. By now it was supposed to be pumping out 1.2m barrels a day (mbd), enough to meet Spain’s entire consumption. But the project, whose name sounds unfortunately like “cash all gone”, went spectacularly awry. A year ago, when the first trickle of crude briefly flowed, it was already eight years behind schedule. Having cost $43 billion, it was $30 billion over budget. And production lasted only a few weeks before leaks of poisonous gas forced its suspension. Earlier this month a government minister admitted it would not restart until at least 2016. Undeterred by the […]

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An aerial view shows artificial islands on Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian sea, western Kazakhstan, April 7, 2013. Picture taken April 7, 2013. REUTERS/Anatoly Ustinenko (KAZAKHSTAN – Tags: BUSINESS ENERGY) – RTX136VO The cost of Kashagan, already the world’s most expensive oil project , is set to rise by nearly $4bn as the companies developing it are forced to replace 200km of leaking pipelines. The rise marks another setback for a venture that was supposed to symbolise Kazakhstan’s emergence as a leading oil producer, but it has been dogged by technical challenges, delays and cost over-runs. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas The consortium – which includes , , , and CNPC – marked first production at the Kazakhstan field in September last year after spending $50bn on its development, but production was shut weeks later when sulphur-containing gas was discovered leaking from pipelines between […]

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Russian natural gas company Gazprom said it was considering extending its working relationship with its counterparts in Kazakhstan through the 2030s. Deputy Gazprom Chairman Alexander Medvedev met in Astana with Kazakh Oil Minister Uzakbai Karabalin to review the Russian company’s future in the former Soviet republic. "The parties discussed further cooperation in the gas sector and, in particular, the extension of the long-term agreement till 2038 — on purchase and sale of gas produced from the Karachaganak gas and condensate field," Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday. "A focus was also placed on the prospects for the joint development of the Imashevskoye gas and condensate field." Kazakhstan is a net importer of natural gas. Much of its domestic gas is used to enhance production from its vast oil fields. It has 85 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves and Karachaganak and Imashevskoye combine to represent 53 percent […]

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The full moon rises in the background over an oil rig at the Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan. Reuters Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan oil field, one of the world’s largest industrial projects, won’t produce any oil until at least 2016 while workers battle against the hostile Caspian Sea to complete massive repairs, according to people familiar with the matter. The project’s partners, which include Eni SpA, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. , have concluded they must entirely replace two 55-mile pipelines before they can restart production, the people said. Replacing the two pipelines connecting an offshore artificial island to onshore facilities is estimated to cost "a few billion dollars," they said. The latest delay is a blow to the Kazakh government, which had based its economic forecasts on revenue from the Caspian Sea oil field, where output was expected […]

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The full moon rises in the background over an oil rig at the Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian Sea in western Kazakhstan. Reuters Kazakhstan’s giant Kashagan oil field, one of the world’s largest industrial projects, won’t produce any oil until at least 2016 while workers battle against the hostile Caspian Sea to complete massive repairs, according to people familiar with the matter. The project’s partners, which include Eni SpA, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp. , have concluded they must entirely replace two 55-mile pipelines before they can restart production, the people said. Replacing the two pipelines connecting an offshore artificial island to onshore facilities is estimated to cost "a few billion dollars," they said. The latest delay is a blow to the Kazakh government, which had based its economic forecasts on revenue from the Caspian Sea oil field, where output was expected […]

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Kazakhstan’s troubled giant offshore Kashagan field is set to see a revamp of the management model in the next several months, but will not change conditions of the field’s production sharing agreement (PSA) and its shareholding structure, the Kashagan operator NCOC said in a statement Monday. Earlier this month, Kazakhstan’s oil and gas minister Uzakbay Karabalin told local media that the ministry was dissatisfied with Kashagan’s rising costs and slow decision-making processes and expected the project’s management system to become more efficient after the planned revamp. "No changes to the PSA and/or the NCSPSA [the North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement] ownership structure are envisioned as a result of the planned transition," NCOC said in a statement. An NCOC spokesman denied last week’s report by the Nefte Compass publication that US major ExxonMobil is to take over as Kashagan’s effective operator from Italy’s Eni. […]

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U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil is in line to take over as operator of the giant Kashagan field in an attempt to fix the beleaguered $50 billion project offshore Kazakhstan, industry publication Nefte Compass reported on Friday. Discussions are continuing but Exxon could be appointed as soon as at the end of June, the newsletter quoted a senior Kazakh official as saying. Exxon was not immediately available for comments. Italy’s Eni was given the job of operating the project in 2001. It later lost its role as the sole lead operator following major delays and cost overruns. Production finally started last September but was halted in early October after the discovery of gas leaks in the pipeline network. Oil output may now not restart until early 2016, Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin said in May, urging foreign partners to start replacing leaky […]

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Hungarian energy company MOL said it discovered oil and natural gas while drilling into the Rozhkovskoye field onshore Kazakhstan. MOL said it posted a test flow rate of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent and 6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the field’s Federovsky block. MOL has a 27.5 percent stake in a consortium controlled by the country’s state-owned KazMunaiGas. The Hungarian company said qualitative analysis was underway to get a better understanding of the full reserve potential in the Federovsky block. The company offered no reserve estimate for the entire Rozhkovskoye field in its Monday announcement. Kazakhstan has the second largest oil reserves and is the second largest oil producer among former Soviet republics. Onshore fields like Rozhkovskoye account for roughly half of the country’s proven oil reserves, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports . © 2014 United Press […]

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Hungarian energy company MOL said it discovered oil and natural gas while drilling into the Rozhkovskoye field onshore Kazakhstan. MOL said it posted a test flow rate of 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent and 6 million cubic feet of natural gas per day from the field’s Federovsky block. MOL has a 27.5 percent stake in a consortium controlled by the country’s state-owned KazMunaiGas. The Hungarian company said qualitative analysis was underway to get a better understanding of the full reserve potential in the Federovsky block. The company offered no reserve estimate for the entire Rozhkovskoye field in its Monday announcement. Kazakhstan has the second largest oil reserves and is the second largest oil producer among former Soviet republics. Onshore fields like Rozhkovskoye account for roughly half of the country’s proven oil reserves, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports . © 2014 United Press […]

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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 […]

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It has been reported by overnight that the super-giant  Kashagan oilfield in the northern Caspian sea “will be out of production for at least two years”. The shutdown has been necessitated by leaks of toxic gas from a pipeline, with Quartz reporting that two new pipelines will now be required to replace the two existing oil and gas pipelines.” “As reported in the FT last month , the Kashagan field had already been beset by problems over many years, with production  only beginning on 11 September last year, nearly a decade behind schedule. So far it has only produced at a rate of about 75,000 barrels a day for only one month, as it was shut in again in October shortly after beginning to produce when the problem of toxic-gas leaks first became apparent. The FT’s report had already […]

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China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (386) , Asia’s biggest refiner known as Sinopec, agreed to pay about $1.2 billion to buy a 50 percent stake in energy assets in Kazakhstan from Russia’s OAO Lukoil. The deal is expected to be completed before the end of the year, Lukoil said in a statement. Lukoil’s Caspian Investment Resources Ltd. owns, through a number of joint ventures, various stakes in four hydrocarbon-production projects in Kazakhstan. Lukoil’s share in commercial hydrocarbon production as part of the projects was 10.2 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2013, it said. To contact the reporter on this story: Aibing Guo in Hong Kong at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jason Rogers at [email protected] Madelene Pearson

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It should have turned Kazakhstan into a global oil and geopolitical champion. Instead, it turned out to be a cul-de-sac, swallowing over $50 billion since its discovery almost two decades ago. Kashagan, a mammoth-sized offshore oil field with recoverable reserves of some 13 billion barrels that stretches over more than 3000 square kilometers, was recently shut down indefinitely due to technical problems. With Kazakh ambitions scuttled and the reputation of the project-managing consortium in tatters, will it go down in history as the Titanic of oil fields? From euphoria to despair, Kashagan has been through it all. Major cost overruns, intense squabbles between major stakeholders, and insurmountable technical problems  prevented  the project from seeing daylight in 2005, as contractually required. Instead, it only began pumping the first barrels in September last year, but this lasted just a few days before the appearance of […]

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An aerial view shows the artificial islands at the Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian sea in western Kazakhstan in this October 16, 2013 file photograph. PARIS— SA said Friday it doesn’t expect the to yield much output this year but said it was on the cusp of approving a $4 billion . The resumption of the Kashagan project has been beset with problems even since a tricky-to-fix gas leak forced the French company and its partners to stop production in October. "If there were to be any production by the end of the year, it wouldn’t be much," Total’s president for exploration and production, Arnaud Breuillac, told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference in Paris. He said the companies are waiting for the results of analyses and ultrasound probes on the leaking pipeline to identify the problem and find ways to fix it. Resuming output […]

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An aerial view shows the artificial islands at the Kashagan offshore oil field in the Caspian sea in western Kazakhstan in this October 16, 2013 file photograph. PARIS— SA said Friday it doesn’t expect the to yield much output this year but said it was on the cusp of approving a $4 billion . The resumption of the Kashagan project has been beset with problems even since a tricky-to-fix gas leak forced the French company and its partners to stop production in October. "If there were to be any production by the end of the year, it wouldn’t be much," Total’s president for exploration and production, Arnaud Breuillac, told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference in Paris. He said the companies are waiting for the results of analyses and ultrasound probes on the leaking pipeline to identify the problem and find ways to fix it. Resuming output […]

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While oil supply from Kazakhstan has increased, its giant Kashagan oil field has "sucked in" major capital with little to show for it, OPEC said Thursday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly market report oil supply from Kazakhstan increased by 60,000 barrels per day year-on-year to average 1.64 million bpd. Kazakhstan hosts Kashagan, one of the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. OPEC said final results from pipeline inspections aren’t due until second quarter 2014, though the project has already consumed substantial investments. "The giant Kashagan project has sucked in almost $50 billion without yielding a barrel of oil," OPEC said in its market report. The North Caspian Operation Co. […]

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While oil supply from Kazakhstan has increased, its giant Kashagan oil field has "sucked in" major capital with little to show for it, OPEC said Thursday. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in its monthly market report oil supply from Kazakhstan increased by 60,000 barrels per day year-on-year to average 1.64 million bpd. Kazakhstan hosts Kashagan, one of the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. OPEC said final results from pipeline inspections aren’t due until second quarter 2014, though the project has already consumed substantial investments. "The giant Kashagan project has sucked in almost $50 billion without yielding a barrel of oil," OPEC said in its market report. The North Caspian Operation Co. […]

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It may cost as much as 15 times more to rebuild the pipelines needed to restart operations at the giant Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea, a metallurgist said. Kashagan is one of the largest oil fields in the world, with an estimated 16 billion barrels of oil reserves. Production was halted in October, less than a month after it started, when a pipeline associated with the field cracked open. A source close to the project told online energy news website Quartz corrosive hydrogen sulfide found within the natural gas associated with the field causes the field’s pipelines to crack open almost as soon the hydrogen sulfide is exposed to moisture. Barry Hindin, a corrosion engineer at Battelle Memorial Institute, told the news site a nickel-based steel alloy that would resist hydrogen sulfide may cost the consortium operating Kashagan as much as 15 times more than conventional pipelines. In […]

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Production at the giant Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan is unlikely to restart this summer as the companies involved in the consortium running the project are still awaiting a report on a gas leak that closed the field last October, people familiar with the project said Wednesday. Resuming output is important so the companies, which include Exxon Mobil Corp. , Royal Dutch Shell PLC, France’s SA and Italy’s SpA, can start generating revenue to recoup some of the $50 billion they have already invested in Kashagan over the last 17 years. It is also important for the Kazakh government, which had based its economic forecasts on revenue from Kashagan, where output was expected to ramp up to 370,000 barrels a day from 180,000 barrels a day initially. "There’s no date for restart, but it certainly won’t be this summer," said one person familiar with the project. In February, Claudio […]

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Kazakh workers were recuperating from the frigid temperatures of the Caspian Sea over cups of tea when their Italian supervisor interrupted their break, demanding they return to work. The workers restrained the supervisor—a manager working for SpA, a company building a giant oil development here—and put a plastic bag over his head. He fled, packed his bags and left Kazakhstan. The spat was a brief episode yet emblematic of the endless challenges that have hobbled a project once hailed as the dawn of a new era in cooperation between oil-rich countries and Western companies. Asked about the 2011 incident, which was described by Western oil-company managers, a senior Eni executive said that he wasn’t familiar with it but that friction between workers and management is a periodic occurrence. Tantalizing rewards were envisioned for both sides from the oil project here, known as Kashagan, at the outset two decades […]

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Kazakhstan is suing foreign oil majors developing its huge Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian Sea, a tactic similar to those that secured the government large stakes in two of the three multinational energy projects on its territory. Repeated delays at the 13-year-old project, targeted to produce as much oil as OPEC member Angola from a reserve almost as big as Brazil’s, have infuriated the Kazakh government. The consortium, led by Exxon, Royal Dutch Shell , Total and Eni as well as Kazakh state oil firm KazMunaiGas, may face Kazakhstan seizing a bigger stake in Kashagan or refusing to reimburse a big chunk of the $50 billion spent on bringing it onstream. The latter option is written into the Kashagan […]

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Eni SpA, Italy’s biggest energy company by market value, Thursday said it expected the giant Kashagan field in Kazakhstan to recover production to the original expected level from 2015. The field’s contribution to Eni’s production for 2014 has been assumed to be marginal, the company said in a statement accompanying fourth-quarter results. Recovery activities are ongoing at Kashagan, it added. Output at Kashagan, which is one of the biggest oil finds in decades, was suspended in October at about 65,000 barrels of oil a day, only a few weeks after starting, after a series of natural gas leaks. No timing of its recommencement has been given. The consortium developing Kashagan, which includes Eni, Total SA, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Exxon Mobil Corp., had said it planned to increase production to 370,000 barrels of oil a day in 2015. Write to Liam Moloney at [email protected]

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The Kazakh Ministry of Energy outlined a strategic 2014 agenda to the nation’s president, a plan that calls for a slight increase in oil production. Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister Uzakbai Karabalin met President Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss plans for the current year, the president’s official website said Monday. The EIA, the U.S. Energy Department’s statistical arm, said Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic, is estimated to hold 30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Its Kashagan field, the fifth largest in the world in terms of volume, holds an estimated 13 billion barrels of oil. The Kazakh government said it expects to see a modest increase in oil production in 2014 to 608 million barrels of oil, compared to the 600 million barrels produced last year, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. The press agency didn’t say which reserve areas would be […]

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Operators of Kazakhstan’s huge Kashagan oil field are considering a temporary solution to resume output, halted indefinitely since mid-October after a series of dangerous gas leaks, people with direct knowledge of the plan said. Before the stoppage, sour and toxic gas coming off the offshore field in the Caspian Sea was separated from crude oil, and sent to an onshore processing plant via a 56-mile pipeline. But the pipe is plagued by leaks and the North Caspian Operating Co. running the $50 billion project has yet to determine how to fix it. Releasing the potentially lethal gas into the air or flaring it isn’t an option because of safety and environmental regulations. Exxon Mobil Corp. , Royal Dutch Shell PLC, and other members of the NCOC consortium are now looking into a makeshift solution that would involve re-injecting the gas into the ground, the people familiar with the matter […]

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An investigation into a gas leak that closed Kazakhstan’s vast Kashagan oil field less than a month after it first started pumping crude found has more potentially problematic locations along an onshore gas pipeline, raising fears of further delays to the $40 billion project. A prolonged halt at Kashagan, which has been plagued by years of delays and cost overruns, could be a drag on the finances of the consortium behind the project, which includes Exxon Mobil Corp. […]

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Operators of the giant Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan are homing in on microscopic cracks in a steel pipeline as they race to understand the cause of dangerous gas leaks that have forced them to halt output indefinitely and could result in hefty repair costs. Members of the NCOC consortium running Kashagan fear the stoppage could extend well into next year if a technical investigation, launched in October after leaks were detected for the second time in three weeks, concludes that a poisonous mix of hydrogen and sulfur contained in the crude oil has done extensive damage to the pipeline system in the $40 billion project, people familiar with the matter said. A prolonged stoppage at Kashagan, where oil had begun flowing on Sept. 11 after many years of delays and cost overruns, could be a drag on the finances of consortium members, including Italy’s Eni ENI.MI -0.06% ENI […]

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