Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 17
By Fakhri Vakilov – Trend:
Development of Kalamkas-Sea field will have a positive impact on investment activity, the standards of living and income of the local population, as well as on the Kazakh national economy as a whole, a source from North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) told Trend in an interview.
In addition, the labor market and educational, scientific and technological spheres will also benefit, the company source added. According to the information from NCOC, the company has already completed a large-scale research on the concept selection. The preferred option is the joint development of the Kalamkas-Sea and the Khazar fields (the development of the latter is carried out in the framework of the PSA for the Pearls block). Joint development shall maximize synergies and increase the profitability of both projects.
It was said that currently NCOC is preparing a plan to ensure the widest possible involvement of local suppliers of goods, works and services in the Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar fields’ development project. According to the source, NCOC is also working to maximize local content. The work is carried out in cooperation with the Government of Kazakhstan and Atameken and KazEnergy industry associations within a new Council to be set up for enhancing strategic partnerships in the oil and gas industry.
Recently, Trend reported that North Caspian Operating Company would start the development of Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar fields in the Caspian Sea. NCOC is also the operator of the North Caspian Project. It is the first major project to develop offshore oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan, which covers five fields including Kashagan, Kalamkas-Sea, Kairan, Aktoty and South-West Kashagan.
The giant Kashagan field is one of the largest oil fields discovered in the last four decades. Its recoverable reserves are estimated as approximately 9–13 billion barrels (1-2 billion tons) of oil. In 2016, commercial oil production began at the Kashagan offshore field for the first time in the history of Kazakhstan. The first million tons was exported in the early days of 2017. In mid-2017, NCOC safely reached actual production levels of over 200,000 barrels per day.
Given its scale and technical complexity, the North Caspian project is divided in several phases. The estimated cost of Kashagan Phase 1, which began commercial production in 2016, is about $55 billion.
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