BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 19. North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) is working to resume pre-August leak volumes of oil extraction, the NCOC representative told Trend.
On August 3, 2022, Bolashak Onshore Processing Facility was safely shut down as a result of the detection of a gas release within the perimeter of the site leasing to a temporary halt in oil extraction activities at Kashagan field. Later, on August 9, it was reported that oil extraction has been resumed.
NCOC noted that the repair works and asset integrity verification have commenced in the unit involved in the event which happened on August 3, as previously reported by the Operator, and partial production operations have been safely restarted. Upon completion of repairs and integrity verification, full production will be restored at the facility.
The rep noted that as of now NCOC is steadily producing approximately 200,000 barrels of oil a day as compared to 400,000 barrels a day at the peak of production pre-incident.
The North Caspian Project is the first major offshore oil and gas development project in Kazakhstan. It covers three fields: Kashagan, Kairan, and Aktoty.
The Kashagan field is one of the three largest oil fields located in the northern part of the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. Its recoverable reserves reach approximately 9-13 billion barrels (1-2 billion tons) of oil.
The first commercial oil production started at Kashagan in 2016. The project operator - North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) - shipped the first million tons of oil for export in early 2017. NCOC has reached a record-breaking volume of oil extraction at the field (390,000-400,000 barrels a day) in 2019.
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