Kazakhstan aims to increase crude and gas condensate production by nearly 25% to 2.155 million b/d by 2025, according to the country's development strategy, Platts reported on February 21, 2018.
The mid-term increase in the output will be underpinned by development of the giant Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea and the future expansion of the Tengiz project. The country's production amounted to 86.2 million mt, or around 1.731 million b/d in 2017, up 10.5% year on year, mainly due to a rise in production at Kashagan.
Kazakhstan's output is on the rise despite its commitments to reduce the output by 20,000 b/d from November 2016's level of 1.8 million b/d under the OPEC production cut deal. Kashagan was re-launched just 3 months before the agreement came into force in January 2017, after years of delays and major cost overruns.
The increase in production is set to continue in 2018 as production at Kashagan is expected to grow to 370,000 b/d by the middle of 2018, up from around 250,000 b/d at the end of 2017.
The Chevron-led Tengiz project, 1 of the 3 key producing fields in Kazakhstan, is expected to increase production by 260,000 b/d by 2022, from around 562,300 b/d in 2017, through implementation of the expansion phase approved by the project's shareholders in 2016.
In late 2017, the government reconsidered its upstream legislation to boost exploration work in the country, improving the economic potential of new reserves, in a move that has already sparked interest from potential investors.
Under the strategy up to 2025, Kazakhstan also plans to expand its refining and petrochemical infrastructure to produce high-quality oil and petchem products. Kazakhstan's 3 refineries have undergone major 1st-stage modernization recently, to improve the quality of their products' baskets.
The current stage of the modernization, which is expected to be fully completed later this year, is set to increase the refineries' combined capacity to 16.5 million mt/year from 13.8 million mt previously.
The government is also considering the possibility of building a 4rth refinery. The latest plan includes preparation of a feasibility study in October-November, after which the government will take a decision on the plant's location and its capacity, local media quoted energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev as saying last week.
