Kazakhstan's energy minister said Thursday that works at one of the world's largest offshore oil fields are ahead of schedule and that production could begin in December 2016. Development of the Kashagan offshore oil field in the north Caspian sea, which by some estimates is the fifth largest of its kind in the world, has been suspended since recurrent gas leaks in September and October 2013, but minister Vladimir Shkolnik said maintenance work on replacement pipelines is proceeding smoothly.
"The infrastructure of the Kashagan deposit is being repaired according to schedule. We are currently three weeks ahead of schedule. The work should be completed by December 2016 and oil extraction will be resumed," Shkolnik said. In addition to Kazakh state oil champion KazMunaiGas there are six energy firms developing Kashagan: Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, China National Petroleum Company (CNPC) and Inpex. Experts have expressed concerns that current low prices for crude oil may make development financially unfeasible, however. Although the field, classified as "super giant" following its discovery in 2000, boasts recoverable reserves of 7-13 billion barrels of crude according to the US Energy Information Administration, it is a technically complicated project. Speaking Monday in the aftermath of a crushing electoral victory criticised by international observers, 74-year old autocrat President Nursultan Nazarbayev called the Kashagan oil field "our pain."
"You can just imagine the equipment needed for this," added the strongman, who has ruled Kazakhstan since before independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Last year, the Kazakh Ministry of Environmental Protection targeted the consortium of companies at Kashagan with a $737 million fine for ecological damage supposedly inflicted while the field was in production, hinting at the government's frustration with slow progress on development.
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