Kazakh Gas Exports Rise Steeply
Kazakhstan increased its gas exports by 26% year on year to 17.3bn m3 in 2017, the energy ministry announced Feb.25. Resumed production at the Kashagan field and a Chinese deal to buy more gas were significant factors.
Although it did not provide a breakdown of export markets, the central Asian republic in October 2017 signed an agreement to step up exports to China to 5bn m³/yr, compared with less than 0.5bn m³ exported in 2016. Most exports continue to flow to Russia.
Kazakhstan's gross gas production increased by 14% to 52.9bn m3 last year, including 31.9bn m3 of sales gas which grew 6% on year, the report said. This means that exports and the domestic market each accounted for roughly half the country's sales gas.
The report said that Kazakhstan plans to increase gross gas production by only 1% to 53.5bn m3 gas in 2018. The sharp rise in last year's output was due to the restart of the giant offshore Kashagan sour oil field in October 2016, which contains 1 trillion m³ of associated gas. Karachaganak accounted for 49% of Kazakhstan's gross gas output, while Tengiz provided 31% and Kashagan 14%. Approved recoverable gas reserves in the country are 3.9 trillion m3, of which a third is dry and the rest is associated gas.
By the end of 2017, three companies including Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO), Tengizchevroil LLC and North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) - the latter operator of Kashagan - together produced about 80% of the gas in the country.
Kazakhstan’s state-run oil and gas company KazTransGas manages 55,000 km of gas pipelines, with a transmission capacity of 85bn m3 /yr, and plans to increase that to 120bn m3/yr by 2030.
The country also plans to produce 87mn metric tons of crude oil and 3mn mt of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) in 2018.