ASTANA – Kazakhstan mined 84.2 million tons of oil last year, which is 1.6 percent more than planned, said Kazakh Minister of Energy Bolat Akchulakov during a governmental session on Jan. 11.
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The Tengiz oil field mined 29.2 million tons of oil, the Karachaganak oil field mined 11.3 million tons, and the Kashagan oil field mined 12.7 million tons. Up to 64.3 million tons of oil were exported, which is 3.4 percent more than planned.
Gas production volume exceeded the plan by 3.1 percent and totaled 53.3 billion cubic meters. Commercial gas production, however, failed to fulfil its goal, reaching only 94 percent completion, mining 27.8 billion cubic meters.
“Failure to achieve this indicator is due to restrictions the Orenburg gas processing plant had on admitting Karachaganak gas, as well as unscheduled repair work at the Tengiz and Kashagan fields,” said Akchulakov
Due to Kazakhstan prioritising supplies to the domestic market, the gas export volume totaled 4.6 billion cubic meters, 14.9 percent less than expected.
According to Energy Minister Akchulakov, the investments over the first nine months of 2022 reached 5.9 trillion tenge (US$12.8 billion) in subsoil use and 56 billion tenge (US$121 million) in geological exploration.
Among the significant projects launched in Kazakhstan last year, Akchulakov highlighted a 500,000-tonne-capacity petrochemical plant for polypropylene manufacture, commissioned in November last year. Once fully operational, the plant will rank among the top ten global producers of polypropylene.
At the end of 2022, the volume of petrochemical products totaled 271,400 tons.
