The partners of the production sharing agreement (PSA), which includes development of the biggest offshore Kashagan field in the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea, have decided to establish a joint company to implement the project, reported the North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC), which is currently operator of the Kashagan project.
It was stated at the end of May 2014 that the partners of the Kashagan field development will create a new operator. The work will be completed till September 2014. The measures have been taken, because work of the previous operator was inefficient.
“Transition of the Kashagan project from the development stage to the extraction stage will open possibility for further integration and merging activities of the operator and agents to get the consortium ready for further development of resources. In order to take advantage of this possibility in the best way, the partners of the consortium have agreed to gradually transit from the current operation model to the consolidated joint company,” reads the NCOC press release.
The united consolidated joint company will be named North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC). The press release reads that the process of integration and merging is planned to start this year. “The establishment of the operation company will not affect the pipeline repair, preparations to resumption of production and completion of the Phase 1. The current operation model with the previous administration will be used till the official announcement of the new company,” reported the same source.
Majority of staff of the united operation company will be based in Atyrau. The employees interacting with the state officials will be based in Astana.
The structure of property and PSA will not be changed during transition to a new model.
Stephan de Maye recommended by ExxonMobile has succeeded to Pier Offan as NCOC Managing Director from May 1, 2014.
KazMunaiGas (KMG), Italian Eni, US ExxonMobil, British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, French Total and Japanese Inpex take part in the project. In addition, Chinese CNPC bought 8.33% share in the project from KMG, reported http://newskaz.ru.
