Shell talks year-end summary of work in Kazakhstan, shares future plans

Astana, February 17 - Neftegaz.RU. Shell will continue to work on safe and reliable operation of its Kazakhstan's assets in 2020, a representative of the company told Trend. Shell, which deals with exploration, production, refining and marketing of oil and natural gas, and the manufacturing and marketing of chemicals is currently operating at Kazakhstan's Kashagan and Karachaganak fields.

In general, the representative said, 2019 was a successful year for Shell Kazakhstan. "Both assets in Kashagan and Karachaganak had safe and successful turnarounds that allowed us to reach our production targets," the official said.

Turnaround at Kazakhstan's Kashagan was implemented from April 14, 2019 till May 19, 2019, meaning that the turnaround took 32 days instead of planned 45 days. In turn, the turnaround at Karachaganak field was implemented starting mid-September 2019 through October 14.

"The turnarounds at both of our assets resulted in improvement of our production performance and equipment reliability," the official said.

Thus, the oil extraction volume at Kashagan field amounted to 390,000-400,000 barrels a day, whereas the oil extraction volume at Karachaganak field was 345,400 barrels of oil equivalent per day during 3Q 2019.

Talking on the future plans, the Shell official noted that the company will continue to work on safe and reliable operation of our assets in 2020. "Our goal is still to reach "goal zero" in terms of personal and process safety incidents and to remain trusted and long-term investor in Kazakhstan," the official concluded.

Developed with an estimated investment of $55 billion, Kashagan phase one represents the biggest international investment in Kazakhstan till date. Developed in harsh offshore environment, it is also considered to be one of the world's most technically challenging oil and gas project completed so far.

Karachaganak is one of the largest oil and gas condensate fields in Kazakhstan. Karachaganak Petroleum Operating produces oil and gas from the Karachaganak field. The shares in the consortium are as follows: Eni - 29.25 %, Shell - 29.25 %, Chevron - 18 %, Lukoil - 13.5 % and KazMunayGas - 10 %.