Kazakhstan's QazaqGaz to spend $134 mln on first phase of exploration at 25 new blocks

ALMATY. Sept 16 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's national gas company QazaqGaz will spend 60 billion tenge or $134 million on the first phase of geological exploration at 25 new blocks, said Asylzhan Dauletov, the company's deputy chairman for exploration and production.

"We have set aside 60 billion tenge for the first phase of work," Dauletov told reporters on the sidelines of the Tyumen Industrial and Energy Forum (TNF).

QazaqGaz has received 25 new blocks for exploration, and technical projects and documents are already being drafted, he said. Field work is expected to begin in late autumn.

"The first phase will cover three major areas of study, including about 16,000 linear kilometers of seismic surveying and 120,000 physical points of geochemical work," Dauletov said.

The company will also process and reprocess data gathered previously, including magnetometric and gravimetric surveys.

Dauletov said QazaqGaz estimates geological resources at about 450 billion cubic meters of gas across three priority projects. The company currently produces around 300-350 million cubic meters of gas a year.

"Our plan is to reach 1 billion cubic meters in 2030, then 1.5 billion in 2033 and so on," Dauletov said.

He stressed that the increase to 1 billion cubic meters will come from new fields.

"We have the Amangeldy field in southern Kazakhstan, and we see promising structures nearby as well. We recently completed 3D (seismic) surveys and plan to start drilling an exploration well before the end of the year," he said.

Dauletov said current exploration volumes are only a starting point given Kazakhstan's gas needs, which he put at 22-23 billion cubic meters a year.

"This is still only a little, because Kazakhstan's demand is 22-23 billion cubic meters," he said.

Dauletov said the push to step up gas exploration has effectively begun only in recent months, since Kazakhstan had previously focused mainly on oil projects.

QazaqGaz represents the state's interests in Kazakhstan's domestic and foreign gas markets. The company is part of the Samruk-Kazyna state fund and manages infrastructure for transporting commercial gas through trunk pipelines and distribution networks.