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Suspended late September, production at the giant field of Kashagan in the north of the Caspian Sea will continue within days, the deputy managing director of North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) Zhakyp Marabayev told journalists, reports IA Novosti Kazakhstan.
The crude production at Kashagan field situated offshore in the Caspian shelf began September 11, but stopped two weeks later over failures found at an on-ground pipeline connecting project's offhore and onshore facilities.
Initial reports promised repair works would take only 3-4 days, however, the production has not been resumed yet.
As oil minister Uzakbai Karabalin told earlier, the suspension was unlikely to affect dates of commercial output in the daily volume of 75,000 barrels, scheduled for October 2013.
"It's a matter of days," Mr Marabayev said Wednesday on the sidelines of International Oil and Gas Conference KIOGE-2013 in Almaty, responding to a journalist's question about renewal dates.
"We are taking all steps possible to resume the production. It's too early to talk about resuming production now, but everything is being done in line with the strictest safety requirements so to renew work without whatever risks," he added.
To the question whether the project stakeholders would introduce corrections to Kashagan's oil production and export schedules, Mr Marabayev said it will be considered after renewal.
The North Caspian Project's stakeholders are Kazakhstan's Kazmunaygas, Italy's Eni, American ExxonMobil, British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total and Japan's Inpex. Besides, Chinese oil giant CNCP has bought a 8.33% share from Kazmunaygas recently.