Russia to Help Kazakhstan Sell Gas from Karachaganak Field

The Kazakh authorities have concluded an agreement with the Russian Gazprom, Orda.kz reports.

The First Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Chair of the Management Board of Gazprom met the day before. As reported by the Russian company's press service, Roman Sklyar and Alexey Miller discussed cooperation in the fields of gas supplies and transportation. 

At the meeting, an agreement was signed on the main conditions for processing and selling gas from the Karachaganak field for 2025–2026.

It is also noted that the government of Kazakhstan and Gazprom agreed on strategic cooperation in November last year. That same year, Kazakhstan became a transit territory, and Russian natural gas began to flow to Uzbekistan via the Central Asia–Center pipeline.

The Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field is in West Kazakhstan. It is managed by the Karachaganak Petroleum Operating consortium, which includes oil giants Shell and Eni. 

In September, we wrote that the authorities of the Republic of Kazakhstan and foreign investors could not agree on the cost of building a gas processing plant at Karachaganak.

In particular, Shell and Eni insist that the project budget needs to be revised to make its implementation economically feasible or that the capacity for processing raw materials needs to be reduced. 

Original Author: Igor Ulitin