Kazakhstan and Russia will Resume the Kurmangazy Oil and Gas Project
After the two wells drilled on the Kurmangazy structure were dry, nothing was heard about this shelf project for a long time. But now Kazakhstan and Russia are planning to resume work, as the Minister of Energy for Kazakhstan, Kanat Bozumbayev announced today in Astana.
“On contract exploration on Kurmangazy spent $ 157 million, 2 wells were drilled to a depth of 1600 meters and 2002 meters. Unfortunately, they turned out to be “dry” and did not give results, the head of the Ministry of Energy recalled. – Therefore, it was decided to increase the contract area for contractors of this project by more than 2000 meters. An agreement was signed with the Russian Federation. You know, from the other side of Rosneft, from our side, KazMunayGas is 50 to 50. The budget for geophysical research will amount to just over $ 30 million.
10–15 years ago, Kazakhstan had great hopes for the development of the Caspian Sea shelf. The Caspian exploration program was advertised as actively as today, for example, the International Financial Center Astana. Kazakhstan hoped to open several more fields comparable in reserves to the Caspian pearl – Kashagan. But a few empty wells restrain the ardor of both officials and investors. Although experts said that one, two or even five empty wells is not at all an indicator that there is no oil.
At the junction of the Kazakh and Russian sectors of the Caspian Sea are three promising structures – Khvalynskoye, Central and Kurmangazy. The Kurmangazy contract territory is located in the northern part of the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea, 80 km north-west of the port of Bautino. Its area is 3,512 square kilometers, and the depth of the sea in the area of work is 5–5.5 meters.
