ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan intends to increase oil production from the current 87 million tons per year to more than 100 million tons in 2025, Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said at the roundtable “Kazakhstan’s Energy Potential — Investments into a New Stage of Development”, held as part of the Kazakhstan Global Investment Roundtable in Astana on July 3, Kazakh Invest National Company for Investment Support and Promotion reported.
“Kashagan [oilfield] is expected to increase production and refining of oil. The Karachaganak development plan provides the existing level. The implementation period by 2020 is 1.5 billion dollars. Over 30 thousand Kazakhstani citizens work at the Tengiz field as part of the expansion project. And the volume of investments in this project exceeds 38 billion dollars. Development over the past two years has exceeded 11 billion, this year – more than 7 billion US dollars,” said Bozumbayev.
In general, the energy minister recalled that Kazakhstan has the largest oil and gas reserves and coal reserves. Only the primary natural resources of the oil equivalent are estimated at 32 billion tons, which is 3.6% of the world’s reserves. Every year significant investments are made in the energy sector of the country, of which the oil and gas industry accounts for a large part. In connection with this, such large oil and gas projects as Kashagan, Karachaganak and Tengiz are successfully implemented. Investments in their development exceed 120 billion US dollars.