Production at Kashagan field returns to normal, daily output at record volumes - KazMunayGas head

ASTANA. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Oil production at the Kashagan field, which was suspended after an accident, has been fully restored, KazMunayGas head Magzum Mirzagaliyev said on Tuesday at the SPE Annual Caspian Technical Conference in Astana.

"We had experienced problems with Kashagan regarding a decline in oil and gas production. However, the good news is that a couple of weeks ago, Kashagan output returned to normal, and daily volumes are now at record levels," Mirzagaliev said at the conference.

Production operations halted at the Kashagan field on August 3 following a gas leak at the Bolashak oil and gas processing facilities.

North Caspian Operating Company, which operates the Kashagan field, announced in the early hours of August 10 that "gradual resumption in production" had been suspended since August 3 owing to a gas leak at the Bolashak facilities. At that time, oil output partially resumed at around 100,000 barrels per day, and to 210,000 bpd on September30.

Kazakh Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said earlier that production at the Kashagan field would resume by the end of October.

The ministry also said that production at the Kashagan field had returned to the previous volumes as of November 6.

Kashagan is considered one of the largest fields discovered in recent decades. Its recoverable reserves range from nine billion to 13 billion barrels of oil. Commercial production at Kashagan began in the autumn of 2016.