Kazakhstan hopes to re-start oil production at Kashagan by 2015 end – Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan expects oil production at the oil giant Kashagan by the end of 2015 or early 2016, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said on Monday at a press conference in Astana.

"Companies are working actively together with KazMunaiGaz, a program has been worked out and the costs of about over US$2 billion will start recovering. At the end of this year or in 2016, we hope to get oil," said the president.

Kazakhstan, the second-largest post-Soviet oil producer after Russia, lowered oil output by 1.2 percent last year to 80.8 million tonnes. It is officially forecast to produce 80.5 million tonnes this year.

In 2017, Kazakhstan expects oil production to rise to 86 million tonnes, and in 2020 to grow to 104 million tonnes.

The Kashagan oil project was launched in September 2013 but shut just a few weeks later due to gas leaks in its pipelines.

Source: akipress.org