KIO To Invest Further In Karachaganak Gas Condensate Field

Karachaganak Integrated Organization (KIO) plans to invest $3.5 million in a project to develop the Karachaganak gas condensate field in Kazakhstan and to increase liquid hydrocarbon production there to seven million tonnes per annum.

KIO is a joint venture between BG, ENI (32.5% each), ChevronTexaco (20%) and Lukoil 15%. A source in the KIO press service told Interfax that it is planned to increase production by building additional production and export capacities.

KIO works at Karachaganak under a contract for the development of this field from 1998 to 2038. A total of $160 million, from various sources, was invested in the field from 1995 to 1997.

Construction at Karachaganak in the period from 1998 to 2003 should include a gas processing plant, a power plant with a capacity of 240 megawatts and three high-pressure compressors. In the coming year it is planned to launch the Karachaganak-Atyrau export pipeline, which stretches six hundred and fifty kilometers and which will subsequently be linked to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline. It is also planned to repair a unit for the separation of liquid hydrocarbons next year, with a capacity of 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas and 4.7 million tonnes of condensate per annum.

Gas production at Karachaganak in 2001 amounted to 3.75 bcm (4.6 bcm in 2000), with condensate production of 4 million tonnes (4.6 million tonnes). This year KIO plans to increase production to 4.7 bcm and 5 million tonnes respectively.

It is planned to set up additional capacity to increase condensate production at Karachaganak to 12 million tonnes per annum by 2008.

Reserves at the Karachaganak field, which is being developed under a production sharing agreement, are estimated at 1.2 billion tonnes of oil and condensate and 1.35 trillion cubic meters of gas.

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