Daily oil output in Kazakhstan down 13% since Kashagan maintenance began, down 60% at field itself - Energy Ministry

ASTANA. Oct 8 (Interfax) - Daily oil output in Kazakhstan has fallen 13% since maintenance at the Kashagan field began, the Kazakh Energy Ministry told Interfax.

"Daily output is down 13% in the country and 60% at Kashagan," it said.

The ministry said daily output in the country was 258,000-260,000 tonnes on October 5-6 and 226,000 tonnes on October 7.

Scheduled maintenance at the big Kashagan field started on October 7.

Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev has said the maintenance would take 30-40 days.

"Scheduled maintenance for 40 days was cleared with the Energy Ministry, but the [NCOC] consortium's management aims to finish the work within 30 days," he said.

Kazakhstan's oil production forecast for 2024 will be adjusted due to the Kashagan maintenance, Satkaliyev said on Tuesday. "The final oil production figure will depend how long this maintenance lasts," he said.

Kashagan field is Kazakhstan's first Caspian offshore oilfield and its biggest international investment project. Its recoverable reserves range from 9 billion-13 billion barrels of oil. Commercial production at Kashagan started on November 1, 2016. Kashagan produced 18.8 million tonnes of oil in 2023.

The shareholders of NCOC, the operator of the Kashagan field, are KMG Kashagan B.V. (16.877%), Shell (SPB: RDS.A) Kazakhstan Development B.V. (16.807%), Total EP Kazakhstan (16.807%), AgipCaspian Sea B.V. (16.807%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. (16.807%), CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. (8.333%) and Inpex North-Caspian Sea Ltd. (7.563%).