NUR-SULTAN

Kazakhstan intends to increase oil production, steadily adding volumes each month as OPEC+ participants agreed on a further gradual rise in oil output.

As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted production as well as demand for oil, OPEC+, a group of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allied producers of which Kazakhstan is a member, cut output by a little more than 7 million bpd to support prices and reduce oversupply. Other former Soviet oil-producing countries, Russia and Azerbaijan, are also OPEC+ members.

In April 2021, members of the group agreed to ease cuts gradually from May. The new deal agreed in September envisaged a further increase by 400,000 bpd “until the parties agree to lift the restrictions”. Kazakhstan, which has been advocating for increased production quotas, welcomed the decision to boost production levels.

OPEC+ decided to continue to increase production by another 400,000 bpd in January 2022 amid news of a possible drop in energy demand due to a new strain of the coronavirus known as Omicron. Experts say that OPEC+ believes that could potentially cause a reduction in demand for energy in the event of strengthening restrictive measures.

Kazakhstan is set to produce 1.589 million bpd in February and 1.605 million bpd in March.

In January the country’s OPEC+ quota was 1.572 million bpd, up from 1.556 million bpd in December.

Most of Kazakhstan’s oil and condensate output comes from the Tengiz, Kashagan and Karachaganak oilfields.

The Tengiz field is operated by the Tengizchevroil, a consortium led by U.S. oil group Chevron. It also includes the U.S. Exxon Mobil, Russia’s LUKOIL and Kazakhstan’s state energy firm KazMunayGaz.

The Kashagan field is operated by an international consortium led by the North Caspian Operating Company. Other partners include Eni, Exxon Mobil, CNPC, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Inpex and KazMunayGaz.

The Karachaganak gas condensate field in northwest Kazakhstan is jointly operated by Eni and Shell. Other shareholders in the project are KazMunayGaz, Chevron and LUKOIL.

Oil production in Kazakhstan in 2020 reached 85.7 million tonnes. In 2021, the Central Asian country planned to produce 86 million tonnes of crude. The country intends to increase oil production to 104.2 million tonnes by 2030.