KMG Sees KCTS As Main Export Route For Kashagan Crude

Kairgeldy Kabyldin, CEO of Kazakh state-owned oil and gas company KazMunaiGaz (KMG), told the Caspian Oil and Gas Conference in Baku on 2 June that the Kazakhstan Caspian Transportation System (KCTS), intended to export up to 600,000 b/d of oil by 2016-17, will be the main export route for the Kashagan offshore field. The KCTS system is intended to deliver Kazakh oil to Baku for export through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and Baku-Batumi export pipelines (MEES, 19 October 2009). Azeri Minister of Energy Natiq Aliyev told the conference that BTC’s transit capacity will be boosted to 1.6mn b/d by late 2011 to handle the KCTS volumes, from the current 1.2mn b/d. Deliveries via KCTS are expected to rise to 500,000 b/d by 2015, and to be expanded to 760,000 b/d by 2020.

Other recent developments in the Caspian and Black Sea areas include:

  • Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said the country’s oil output is expected to rise by 3.2% to 52mn tons (1.04mn b/d) in 2010 over 2009, while gas production will expand by 27% to 29bn cu ms. He estimated 2009 Azeri output at 50.4mn tons of oil and 23.6 bcm of gas. He told a Baku conference: “Currently, our output is exceeding our export ability and we are required to branch out into new markets or boost the volume in existing markets.” Azeri Energy Minister Natiq Aliyev added that gas exports are expected to rise to 8.5 bcm in 2010, with the bulk going to Turkey (6.2 bcm) and the remainder going to Russia (1.1 bcm), Georgia (0.6 bcm) and Iran (0.5 bcm).

  • Max Petroleum said on 2 June that it has started drilling the fourth of 12 post-salt exploration wells in Kazakhstan, after abandoning two earlier wells. The latest well, KZI-1, is located on the Kyzylzhar I prospect in Block E. The company plugged and abandoned the third well, KZN-2, because it did not encounter hydrocarbons, while the second well, KZN-1, found deposits that are not commercially viable. The first well, BOR-1, reached a total measured depth of 1,755ms in the Borkyldakty prospect in Block E and encountered 38ms of net oil pay.

Copyright MEES 2010.