Kazakh Gross Gas Output Up 15% in 1H
Thanks to the start-up of the Kashagan offshore field in the Caspian last autumn, Kazakhstan increased production of oil, condensate and natural gas significantly in first half 2017.
Gross gas production increased, with 11.549bn m3 dry gas (up 15.2% year-on-year) and 14.733bn m3 associated gas (+14.5%) produced in Kazakhstan in 1H2017, according to the economy ministry’s statistics committee.
It does not publish sales gas production figures. However as Kazakhstan’s sales gas output in full year 2016 was 19.9bn m3, according to the recent 2017 BP Statistical Review of World Energy, the ministry’s gross gas figures suggest that a lot is used in oil field reinjection, as Kazakhstan flared a relatively modest 2.67bn m3 in 2016 according to World Bank data.
Crude oil production meanwhile increased by 8.7% year on year to 35.863mn tons (1.45mn b/d), while gas condensate grew by 15.6% to 6.691 million tons (370,000 b/d) in 1H2017, according to the economy ministry’s statistics committee, while Kazakh coal output also increased by 17.5% to 52.617mn tons. Electricity production was up 10.8% to 50.997bn kWh in first half 2017.
The same ministry source put Kazakhstan's full year 2016 production at 65.577mn tons crude oil, 12.464mn tons condensate, 21.384bn m3 gross dry gas and 24.945bn m3 gross associated gas.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is to lend €54mn to state gas grid KazTransGas Aima towards the overall €67.5mn (25 billion tenge) cost of upgrading five gas distribution grids across Kazakhstan, starting with the main Tobol-Auliekol pipeline system in Kostanai region, and then continuing in the Aktyubinsk, Mangistau and Kostanay regions. The five-project programme will last until 2019. EBRD said on its website: “The investment program provides for the expansion of the gas network and the connection of regional administrative centers to it.”
Azerbaijan Desk