OREANDA-NEWS. September 05, 2008. In 2007, oil and condensed gas production in Kazakhstan made up 67 million tons, 4% up against 2006. This was announced by Mr. Sauat Mynbayev, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, at the III KazEnergy Eurasian Energy Forum.

In 2008, production is expected to reach 70 million tons, which is 1.8% of global production. Given the ratio of reserves and production, there are bright prospects of growth, the Minister said.

”As for the internal market, domestic refineries processed over 12 million tons in 2007, 3.2% up against 2006. Oil exports in 2007 totaled 60 million tons; this year we expect this indicator to further increase; by 2015 we intend to produce about 100 million tons per annum, most part of which will be exported”, S. Mynbayev said.

Expansion of the CPC capacities is to be completed by 2012. “The issue of expanding the CPC capacities from the current 32.9 million tons (including 25 million tons for Kazakh oil) up to 67 million tons a year has been discussed for a long time and is almost finalized. May 7, 2008 Kazakhstan and Russia signed a respective memorandum, which was coordinated with key players of the project – Transneft, KazMunaiGaz, Chevron, Exxon and others. There are just some outstanding procedural questions to settle”, Mr. Mynbayev said.

“Natural gas is growing promising for Kazakhstan: its proven and estimated reserves (taking into account some new fields) stand at 3.3 trillion cubic meters; potential reserves could be 6-8 trillion cubic meters, which is 1.7% of global reserves. Most of the reserves are concentrated in fields ready for commercial development – such as Tengiz, Kashagan, Korolevskoye, and oil-and-condensed gas fields such as Karachaganak, Zhanazhol and some others”, Minister Mynbayev said.

”In 2007, Kazakhstan produced 29.6 billion cubic meters of gas; production is estimated to reach 42 billion cubic meters by 2010; 62 billion cubic meters”, the Minister said.

A priority is stable gas supplies in the domestic market. “At the moment, gas to northern regions is supplied by Russia. One of the acute issues as of today is to ensure stable gas supplies to southern regions that have been traditionally “fed” by Uzbek gas; in cold periods we suffer from gas shortages in these regions”, the Minister elaborated.

To boost energy security and decrease dependence on external supplies, the nation is considering construction of Beineu-Bozoi-Akbulak main gas pipeline to be completed by 2014. “The pipe will allow unhindered supplies of gas from western to southern regions… so far we are talking of 5 billion cubic meters”, S. Mynbayev said.