ASTANA – Kazakh Prime Minister Alikhan Smailov signed a government decree approving a comprehensive plan for developing major oil and gas and petrochemical projects for 2023-2027, the Prime Minister’s press service reported.
Gas processing facilities at the Tengiz oilfield in Kazakhstan. Photo credit: upstreamonline.com.
The plan is aimed at meeting the needs of the domestic market. The document encompasses 20 projects in the oil and gas industry, oil and gas processing, and petrochemistry, with an expected investment volume of $37.3 billion. It implies large-scale works at the Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan fields, Kazakhstan’s three major oil and gas fields.
By 2027, the Kazakh government plans to increase oil production to 105.5 million tons and gas production to 82.1 billion tons.
The government envisaged implementing three projects to provide the internal market with petroleum products. The major one will increase the capacities of the Shymkent refinery from six to 12 million tons by 2029. As a result, the country will produce 18 million tons of petroleum products per year.
To ensure oil supplies to the Shymkent plant, the government will expand the capacities of Kenkiyak-Atyrau oil pipelines from six to 15 million tons per year and Kenkiyak-Kumkol oil pipelines from ten to 20 million tons per year.
Kazakhstan is also considering constructing the first integrated gas chemical complex to produce polyethylene with a capacity of 1.25 million tons. On top of that, the country plans to develop an infrastructure project for a gas separation complex with a processing capacity of 9.1 billion. The goal is to boost the production of petrochemical products, stimulate investment flows, and reveal the potential of the Tengiz field.
There are also seven exploration and field development projects with a total investment of nearly $10 billion, including the development and preparation for production at the Kalamkas-Sea and Khazar fields, the development of the Urikhtau gas condensate field, and the geological prospecting on Karaton-Podsolevoy field.
