Natural Gas

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 418.

Oil

Kazakhstan is estimated to have between 30 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, which place it eleventh in the world. Over the last several years the oil production has increased rapidly due to foreign investment and improvements in production efficiencies. In 2006, Kazakhstan produced 54 million tons of crude oil and 10.5 million tons of gas condensate (565 MMbbls), which makes Kazakhstan eighteenth-largest oil producer in the world. At current production levels Kazakhstan is thought to have approximately 50 years of remaining production. According to the president Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan is planning to increase its oil production up to 3.5 million barrels of oil a day, of which 3 million will go to export, in coming ten years. This will lift Kazakhstan into the ranks of the world's top 10 oil-producing nations. According to the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Baktykozha Izmukhametov Kazakhstan plans to increase the petroleum output to 150 million tons by 2015.

The main production sites are the Tengiz field (290,000 bbl/d), located on the northeast shores of the Caspian, and the Karachaganak field (210,000 bbl/d), located inland near to Russian border. In future Kazakh oil production will also relay on the Kashagan field, the largest oil field outside the Middle East, which possess anywhere from 7 to 13 billion bbls in recoverable reserves, and the Kurmangazy field in Northern Kazakhstan. There are some smaller oil fields neat to Chinese border, which not developed yet. 76% of Kazakhstan's oil and gas production and remaining reserves are concentrated in these three oil fields as well as the Uzen Field, a further 14% of reserves and production are located in 6 further fields

The leading oil industry is state-owned oil company KazMunayGas. The landmark foreign investment in Kazakh oil industry is the TengizChevroil joint venture, owned 50% by ChevronTexaco, 25% by ExxonMobil, 20% by the Government of Kazakhstan, and 5% by Lukarco of Russia. The Karachaganak natural gas and gas condensate field is being developed by BG, Agip, ChevronTexaco, and Lukoil. Also Chinese, Indian and Korean oil companies are involved in the Kazakhstan's oil industry.

Main oil export routes are the Caspian Pipeline Consortium and the Atyrau-Samara oil pipeline to Russia, and Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline to China. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and Neka in Iran could be supplied by oil tankers. In addition, for the export to neighboring countries the rail transport is used.

Kazakhstan has three oil refineries: in Pavlodar, in Atyrau, and in Shymkent. Pavlodar and Shymkent refineries process West Siberian crude oil, which is imported through the Omsk (Russia) - Pavlodar (Kasakhstan) - Shymkent - Türkmenabat (Turkmenistan) pipeline.

Kazakhstan owns proven natural gas reserves around 1500-2500 billion cubic meter (bcm)(47 Tcf), eleventh in the world. However, Kazakhstan became a net gas exporter only in 2003. In 2005, Kazakhstan produced 16 bcm (620 bcf)of natural gas and plans to increase this to 60-80 bcm a year in the 10 years perspective. The major natural gas fields are Karachaganak, Tengiz, Kashagan, Amangeldy, Zhanazhol, Urikhtau and Chinarevskoye.

The natural gas trunk pipeline system stretches about 10,000 kilometers. The major transit pipelines are the Central Asia-Centre gas pipeline and the Bukhara-Urals pipeline, which transport natural gas from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to Russia, and Orenburg-Novopskov pipeline and Soyuz pipeline from Orenburg processing plant to Europe. The Gazli-Bishkek pipeline transports natural gas from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan. The Central Asia-Centre and the Bukhara-Urals pipelines as also the Bukhara-Tashkent-Bishkek-Almaty pipeline are also main import pipelines. The main gas export goes to Orenburg processing plant in Russia. The export to Russia goes also through the Central Asia-Centre and the Bukhara-Urals pipelines. There is plan to build a natural gas pipeline to China. To supply this pipeline, the Ishim (Rudny)-Petropavlovsk-Kokshetau-Astana pipeline is planned.