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Chinese-Kazakh Company Opens New Oil Field in Western Kazakhstan

Posted on: Monday, 1 August 2005, 09:00 CDT

Text of report by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency

Aktobe, 30 July: The subsidiary enterprise of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in Kazakhstan, CNPC-AktobeMunayGaz joint-stock company, has opened an oil field in the central area of the eastern part of the Caspian depression in Aktyubinsk Region.

"This event is of historic significance and the company itself links its prosperity and future with it," the director-general of the company, Jiang Qi, said addressing the official opening of the new oil field on 29 July in Aktobe (administrative centre of Aktyubinsk Region).

He said the oil field was given the name of Umit (in Kazakh - Hope).

Jiang Qi recalled that the company had started the seismic exploration of the territory from August 2002 and the following several years it drilled three test wells - Vostochnyy Kuantay-1, Ashchysay-1 and Nadezhda.

He said currently from 85 to 120 tonnes of crude hydrocarbon was being extracted every day at the [new] oil well. "However, he said, it is early yet to speak about forecasting indicators of extraction as currently exploration of its layers are continuing."

Jiang Qi also said that on the results of drilling work at Ashchysau-1 oil well, it was decided to drill a second test well of Ashchysay-2 with a view to tracing its productive limits, and in the fourth quarter [of this year] start another seismic exploration at the same sector.

Jiang Qi also said that CNPC had invested over 1.8bn dollars in its subsidiary in Kazakhstan since it had obtained the AktobeMunayGaz oil company eight years ago, and for that money old Zhanazhol gas refinery was reconstructed, a new gas refinery was built, and also infrastructures for extracting, storing and shipping oil and gas were created.

He also emphasized that over the period of 1997-2004, the company increased the volume of oil extraction from over 2.7m tonnes to over 5.3m tonnes.

The company is planning to extract 6m tonnes of oil in 2005, he said.

"CNPC-AktobeMunayGaz" is the largest oil extracting company in Aktobe Region. "As of the end of last year, the remaining recoverable reserves of the Zhanazhol oil field, which is being developed by the company, was over 78m tonnes of oil. Apart from that, the Kenkiyak oversalt and Kenkiyak undersalt deposits contained 17.2m and 28.3m tonnes of crude hydrocarbon respectively.

The company has over 12,000 workers.

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

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