New associated gas plant proposed for Kashagan oil field

A new gas processing plant will be built in the Makat district of Kazakhstan’s Atyrau region, 12 km northeast of the existing onshore Bolashak oil and gas treatment complex, to accommodate associated gas production from giant offshore Kashagan oil field.

Scheduled to be implemented by yearend 2021, the $860-million gas plant—backed by investor GPC Investment LLP—will have a design capacity of 1 billion cu m/year, the office of Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Askar Mamin said in a release.

“The construction of the gas processing plant at [Kashagan field] is an important project for the country, which will increase oil production at the field by 12 million [tonnes], as well as create 2,800 temporary [construction] and 600 [permanent] jobs,” said Mamin.

The prime minister, who announced the project at a late-February meeting on the proposed development during a visit to the Atyrau region, said the plant’s products will be delivered both to domestic and foreign markets.

“Since October 2019, we have comprehensively studied this project. Today’s [Feb. 27] meeting should be considered as the final one in deciding on the construction of the plant,” Mamin said.

Further details regarding the new associated gas plant were not disclosed.

Field background

Located 80 km southeast of Atyrau in the north Caspian Sea and reaching first production in 2013, Kashagan field production in 2018 averaged 303,000 b/d of liquids and 451 MMcfd of natural gas, according to the most recent factbook to investors from Eni SPA, which holds a 16.81% interest in the field via the North Caspian Sea PSA Consortium (NCPSA) (OGJ Online, Sept. 11, 2013).

Eni said a 2019 experimental program development of Kashagan field was anticipated to lead to plateau oil production capacity of about 370,000 b/d, with additional phases of development under study that contemplated increasing gas injection capacity, conversion of production wells into injection wells, and upgrading of the existing facilities.

Updates regarding the proposed experimental program development have yet to be disclosed.

Liquid production from the field is stabilized at the Bolashak complex for export along the Caspian Pipeline Consortium—in which Eni holds a 2% interest—and the Atyrau-Samara pipeline, according to Eni.

Field operator North Caspian Operating Co. BV acts on behalf of NCPSA partners, which alongside Eni, include: KazMunayGas, ExxonMobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, and Total SA, 16.81% each; ConocoPhillips 8.4%, and Inpex 7.56%.