BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 14. Kazakhstan's crude oil supply increased by 100,000 barrels per day (kb/d) in January, following several months of planned and unplanned maintenance at the country's major oil fields, Kashagan and Tengiz, Trend reports.
According to the latest report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), this growth was further bolstered by the first oil output from the long-awaited Tengiz expansion project. The Tengizchevroil joint venture, which includes Chevron (50%), ExxonMobil (25%), KazMunayGas (20%), and LukArco (5%), has been producing oil at Tengiz above its original capacity of 600 kb/d. The new $50 billion Future Growth Project (FGP), which faced over a decade of engineering challenges and cost overruns, has increased the field’s nameplate crude capacity to 860 kb/d.
The Kazakh Energy Ministry has announced expectations for a production increase of more than 25% from Tengiz in 2025. Chevron has also emphasized the FGP as a key pillar of its production strategy in upcoming earnings discussions. If Tengiz produces as projected, along with steady output from other Kazakh fields, Kazakhstan is set to surpass its agreed targets and could achieve an average crude output of nearly 2 mb/d in 2025, the IEA noted.
As Kazakhstan continues to ramp up its oil production, the country is exploring ways to reduce its reliance on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). In January, KazMunayGas sent its first seaborne shipment to Baku under an agreement with the Azeri-owned Socar. The IEA pointed out that this move could eventually see up to 45 kb/d of crude transported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, providing an alternative route to the Mediterranean Sea.