Astana, Kazakhstan, March 8
By Daniar Mukhtarov - Trend:
KazMunaiGas National Company intends to focus on geological exploration on Kazakhstan's territory, rather than abroad, chairman of the KazMunaiGas' board, Sauat Mynbayev told Trend on March 7.
"As for the large-scale geological exploration or investment outside of Kazakhstan, I believe KazMunaiGas will not do this," he said. "We intend to focus on the fields on the country's territory."
He recalled that as the national company, KazMunaiGas has the priority right to free the land plots for subsoil use.
"So, we will definitely participate in the 'Eurasia' project and concentrate on it on a par with other members of the international consortium," he added.
He stressed that KazMunaiGas subsidiaries, namely 'Rompetrol' company is engaged in geological exploration in Romania.
"Rompetrol has such an asset like Focsani geological exploration block. We got it with the purchase of Rompetrol. Therefore it would be logical to continue seismic surveys at this block," Mynbayev said.
It was previously reported that during the 'KazEnergy' forum in October 2013, Kazakhstan announced about a new project called 'Eurasia'.
The resource potential of the Caspian region and especially Caspian basin stands at about 40 billion tons of fuel equivalent, according to the experts.
There are about two dozen large hydrocarbon deposits with reserves of over 300 million tons, according to the forecasts.
Kazakh Oil and Gas Minister, Uzakbai Karabalin said previously that Kazakh hydrocarbon reserves can be doubled in case of realizing the 'Eurasia' project.
'Eurasia' project will be realized in three phases. The first will involve the collection and recycling of materials of previous years. Second - conducting large-scale studies. And the last one includes drilling the new 'Caspian 1' support-parametric well, to a depth of about 14-15 kilometres.
The estimated cost of the three phases of the 'Eurasia' project is about $500 million.
Translated by N.H. and E.A.
