One of the largest and most expensive oil projects in the world, which for many years could not start, which almost all have forgotten, can suddenly intervene to balance the oil market. And screw everything up.
The Kashagan field, far behind the schedule run for many years, in the near future may still be in development, according to the material of the information resource Oil Price. Located in the Kazakh part of the Caspian sea, it was opened 15 years ago. However, this extremely complex project is just tortured their owners – Eni, Exxon, Shell, Total and the Kazakh government.
Its implementation has cost $ 53 billion, in connection with which the investors have a legitimate question arises – and their investments will ever pay off? This will become clear in October, when, finally, to begin commercial oil production. According to experts, the year the production at Kashagan will reach 370 thousand barrels per day. This is more than is now produced in all fields of Libya together.
And if this estimate is correct, the balance of supply and demand on the world oil market will move from mid-2017 into the indefinite future. On the other hand, not everyone believes in such predictions.
For example, consulting firm Wood MаcKenzie believes that the operators of the field for another SIP with him grief, and in the following year, the Kashagan field will produce a maximum of 154 thousand barrels a day. A volume of 370 thousand barrels will be reached no earlier than 2026.
I must say that when Kashagan was discovered in 2000, it seemed extremely promising. However, this area has become a huge headache because of the many problems.
First of all, deposits are located on half a mile deep under the Caspian sea. Eni and its partners had to fill artificial Islands to conduct drilling, because in winter the sea is covered with ice. And the most unpleasant – in the oil-rich horizons contains too much hydrogen sulfide.
This poisonous gas in 2013, “eroded” the main pipeline linking the field with onshore plants preparation. When there is a leak, work on the project had to stop, and the final solution of this problem cannot find until now.
There is some irony in the fact that the Kashagan project after so many years of suffering starts when the price of oil, falling to the bottom, begin slowly to rise. And instead bring their owners a much-deserved reward, it’ll be a huge hindrance to balancing the global oil market.
The only consolation in one thing – only this ambitious project managed to survive all those like him. All the rest that the oil companies did not have time to run to the price collapse, or frozen indefinitely, or even cancelled. So, Kashagan will be the last mega project of modernity.
