Kazakhstan hopes that oil production on the giant oil field Kashagan in the Caspian Sea resumes at the end of 2015 or in 2016, Novosti Kazakhstan quoted Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying at a press conference in Astana on Monday.
“The companies jointly with KazMunaiGas have been working hard, we have a program, over $2 billion will be spent for reconstruction and we hope to extract this oil at the end of this year or in 2016, because it will be helpful for implementation of all our programs in the future,” President said.
Nazarbayev added that Kazakhstan has enough oil right now and urged people to be patient. “We need to wait (…) On the other hand, when the project is delayed like this (extraction and everything), people start worrying, but I would like to say that we need to make sure that the future generations have more, we have enough,” he said.
The oil extraction on the Kashagan field was suspended in September 2013 two weeks after its commencement, because of gas leakage. Right after resumption of production in October 2013 another leakage was detected. The examination, which lasted several months, revealed numerous micro cracks on the pipeline caused by impact of the associated gas with high sulfur content on the metal. In April 2015 North Caspian Operating Co (NCOC), the project operator, confirmed that the gas pipeline and oil pipeline on the field, which make about 200 km, must be fully replaced.
