Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, July 8 -- Russian oil firm Rosneft-Kazakshtan Ltd. and Kazakhstan's oil and gas company KazMunayGaz signed a production-sharing agreement July 6 to jointly develop Kurmangazy oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. The field straddles the Russia-Kazakh border (OGJ, June 15, 2005, p. 34).
The two firms will invest as much as $23 billion in the project, and each will hold a 50% share.
The agreement is for 55 years, with up to 10 years to be spent on exploration and 45 on extraction, said Baktykozha Izmukhambetov, Kazakh first deputy minister of energy and mineral resources.
Izmukhambetov said Kurmangazy's reserves are 980 million tonnes or 7.33 billion bbl of crude oil.
Over the term of the agreement, Kazakhstan will earn more than $30 billion in taxes and other payments, Izmukhambetov said.
