The planned maintenance at the giant Kashagan oil field will not be postponed. Halting production will allow Kazakhstan to fulfil its promises to OPEC+ to reduce output.
“The government has denied information about the postponement of repairs at the Kashagan oil field,” – reports the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.
A significant reduction in production is expected in October during the planned repair period, the department said.
“During this period, we plan to offset the significant overproduction accumulated since the beginning of the year. This was noted during the recent visit of OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais (26 August) and a meeting with analytical agencies organised by the OPEC Secretariat. Kazakhstan confirms its commitment to the OPEC+ Agreement and understands the important role of the Agreement in ensuring the stability of the global oil market.” — says the message of the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan.
The department previously explained that the option of postponing repairs at Kashagan had been considered, but this had only taken place at the level of previous discussions. Kashagan is one of three megaprojects in Kazakhstan. Its reserves are estimated at 36.6 billion barrels.
Starting this year, Kazakhstan has taken on additional obligations to reduce production by 82 thousand barrels per day. At the same time, OPEC reported that, for example, in January-March oil production in the country exceeded the quota by 389 thousand barrels per day. In May, overproduction amounted to 45 thousand barrels per day.
OPEC+ countries have adopted several oil production cuts totaling 3.6 million barrels per day to stabilise the market and commodity prices. At the same time, the problem was not only the growth of production in other countries, but also the failure to meet quotas by the participants themselves, the largest of which is Iraq. For example, in January-March, overproduction in the country amounted to 602 thousand barrels per day.
