ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) expects to maintain its oil production this year at last year’s level despite oil production decrease plans in Kazakhstan, Novosti-Kazakhstan news agency reported citing KMG head Sauat Mynbayev.
Earlier this year Minister of Economic Development Yerbolat Dosayev said that Kazakhstan planned to reduce oil production from 77 million down to 74 million tons this year.
In Mynbayev’s words, with the current low oil prices it is difficult to “survive” not only for small oil companies but also such big companies as KMG. “But large companies have a bigger and more reliable ‘cushion’ that allows surviving under low prices,” said the head of the national company.
In his words, last year KMG succeeded in slightly increasing its oil production by one percent compared to 2014 — up to 22.670 million tons.
Kazakhstan Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik said last week that Kazakhstan has an oil production scenario depending on global oil prices. “The lower the price, the less is our possibility to produce oil, especially at water-flooded deposits and at depleting deposits where companies lack money for investing in exploration and deep drilling,” he said.
Mynbayev also said that KMG is preparing for privatization of its stakes in Atyrau and Pavlodar oil refineries.
Kazakhstan has three oil refineries — in Atyrau, Pavlodar and Shymkent.
The KMG head said that the oil refinery in Shymkent is already 50-percent owned by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), and there are doubts that the state should further sell its shares in the refinery.
