Kashagan Pushed Back To 2011

Production at Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field has been delayed to the end of 2011, Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev has announced.

Mynbayev also confirmed that Italian energy group Eni will no longer be the sole operator of Kashagan and will share the operatorship with other members of the project group.

According to US reports, the Kazakh Government was disappointed with the execution of the project after Eni - leading a consortium of Total, Shell ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Inex - postponed the start of production from 2008 to 2010.

In August last year, it was revealed that Eni could lose control of Kashagan after the Kazakh Government announced an increase in project costs.

The field, which was discovered in July 2000, is the world’s biggest oil discovery in 30 years.

By staff writer