Kazakhstan wants to forge ahead with
developing new oil and gas fields in its sector of the Caspian Sea and hopes to wrap up a string of deals with foreign partners next year, a senior official said on Wednesday.
The deals, primarily based on PSAs, mark a second stage of
offshore development to follow major initial projects such as the giant Kashagan field, being developed by Italy's ENI-led consortium.
The new projects should help boost Kazakhstan's offshore oil output to 89.2 million tons by 2015, from just 3 million tons last year, an official from KazMunaiGas said.
It is said that Kazakhstan's proven offshore reserves of oil at 30 billion barrels and of gas at 3 trillion cubic metres.
The largest new block, Darkhan, has an estimated 1.5 billion tons in oil reserves.
Source Reuters