Astana, June 27 - Neftegaz.RU. Kazakhstan is planning to maintain oil output at the current level of 1.8 million b/d until the end of the year, energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev said on June 26, according to Platts.
"Our daily production is 1.8 million barrels, we are not planning to reduce it, the average rate of production will remain around this level until the end of the year," Bozumbayev said according to the report.
Kazakhstan is participating in the OPEC/non-OPEC agreement to cut oil production that came into force at the beginning of 2017. It committed to cut its liquids production by 20,000 b/d from November 2016 volumes of 1.7 million b/d under this deal, but has met its target just once, in August 2017, due to planned maintenance at one of the country's major projects, Tengiz.
The latest statistics released in mid-June showed that Kazakhstan's oil and gas condensate output was 7.825 million mt, or around 1.85 million b/d in May. Bozumbayev attended a meeting on Saturday during which changes to the deal to allow additional barrels to come to market were agreed.
Bozumbayev also said Tuesday that Kazakhstan hopes that output at its major Kashagan project will increase by the end of this year. "Currently we have reached production of 300,000-320,000 b/d. By the end of the year I hope it will be a bit higher," he said.
Project partners have given different figures for Kashagan output in recent months. Central Asia executive vice president for Italy 's Eni, Luca Vignati, said at the end of May that production has reached 335,000 b/d.
There were plans to bring output at the field up to 370,000 b/d in mid-summer but that target has been repeatedly delayed.