Kashagan Field to Suspend Oil Production Next Summer

The international consortium North Caspian Operating Company, an operator of Kashagan field, West Kazakhstan, is going to put oil production on hold next June due to maintenance of the equipment, according to Ermek Marabayev, deputy executive director of NCOC. 

The company is going to make an overhaul of the equipment deployed both at the Caspian Sea and on the shore. Therefore, oil production will be stopped from June 1 to July 1, 2022, Marabayev said.

He also noted that NCOC and his partner Caspian Pipeline Consortium are going to upgrade a flowmeter they use for measuring oil supplies.

«It is expected that the new flowmeter should be put into operation in August 2022 after the overhaul,» he added.

In 2020 Kashagan produced 15.1 million barrels, a 7.1% increase over the same period in 2019. This year NCOC is going to extract a little bit more: 15.15 million barrels of oil.

Kashagan is the first Kazakhstani offshore oil and gas field. It is also the largest international investment project in the country which has operated since November 1, 2016.

Among stakeholders of the NCOC, which runs Kashagan field, are KMG Kashagan B.V. (16.877%), Shell Kazakhstan Development B.V. (16.807%), Total EP Kazakhstan (16.807%), AgipCaspian Sea B.V. (16.807%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. (16.807%), CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. (8.333%) and Inpex NorthCaspian Sea Ltd. (7.563%).