Kazakhstan's Kashagan field completes scheduled turnaround, restarts operations

NUR-SULTAN. July 11 (Interfax) - North Caspian Operating Company (NCOC) has re-started its offshore and onshore facilities at the Kashagan field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea.

"NCOC successfully completed the scheduled turnaround activities at its offshore and onshore facilities on Kashagan. NCOC has gradually re-started its offshore and onshore facilities by re-opening wells and putting production systems online into normal operational mode," NCOC said in a statement.

NCOC said it would "continue to ramp up production volumes with a primary focus on safety and production stability."

It said it had conducted necessary maintenance and inspections, and completed a number of projects to increase the safety and reliability of production operations.

"This turnaround is a huge milestone for NCOC to ensure asset integrity, safeguard the reliability and increase our production capacity," NCOC Managing Director Olivier Lazare said.

NCOC suspended production at the Kashagan field for a 45-day turnaround project on June 1. This was the second turnaround project. The first one was implemented in 2019, while the third is scheduled for 2026.

Kashagan is Kazakhstan's first offshore oil and gas field in the Caspian Sea. It is the largest international investment project in the country. Commercial operations at Kashagan began on November 1, 2016.

NCOC, the operator of the Kashagan project, is owned by KMG Kashagan B.V. with 16.877%, Shell (SPB: RDS.A) Kazakhstan Development B.V.,Total EP Kazakhstan, Agip Caspian Sea B.V. and ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Inc. each with 16.807%; CNPC Kazakhstan B.V. with 8.333% and and Inpex North Caspian Sea Ltd. with 7.563%.