KazMunayGas, Lukoil to start drafting project documentation for Kalamkas-Sea, Khazar, Auezov blocks by year-end

ASTANA. Sept 14 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas (KMG) and Russia's Lukoil plan to move to the project documentation stage for Kalamkas-Sea, Khazar, and Auezov offshore oil blocks by the end of 2023.

"We are in the final stages of establishing the project operator, Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP, and plan to move to the stage of developing project documentation by the year's end," the KMG CEO Magzum Mirzagaliev was quoted as saying.

KMG told Interfax that it and Lukoil had also closed the sale of a 50% stake in Kalamkas-Khazar Operating to the Russian company and that they now owned it on an equal footing.

KMG met with the management of Lukoil in Astrakhan to discuss the progress of the joint projects.

They also considered the prospects for establishing a consortium between KMG Engineering and Lukoil-Engineering to provide engineering scientific and technical support for Kalamkas/Khazar, other capital projects, and operations.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev earlier set the task of developing the large Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar blocks, citing the depletion of oil fields and declining oil production by 2030.

KazMunayGas and Lukoil on February 9, 2023 signed a number of agreements relating to the development of the Kalamkas Sea, Khazar and Auezov blocks in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, including an agreement on the sale and purchase of a 50% holding in the charter capital of Kalamkas-Khazar Operating LLP and an agreement on terms and conditions for the financing of the project by its participants.

The Kalamkas Sea, Khazar and Auezov fields lie 60 km from the coast and at a depth of 7-9 meters. Production is expected to start in 2028 and will total 3-4 million tonnes per year. The development costs are estimated at about $5 billion.

Kalamkas Sea, discovered in 2002, is located 120 km southwest of the Kashagan field and very close to the Khazar field. The combined recoverable reserves of the Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar fields are estimated at 67 million tonnes of oil and 9 billion cubic meters of gas.