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CNPC confirms participation in Eurasia hydrocarbon project

ASTANA – The government of Kazakhstan expects to receive a decision from the potential participants of the Eurasia project at the end of May of this year, Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said on April 14. The Eurasia project is the project of research and exploration of hydrocarbon deposits of the Caspian Basin.

After this decision Kazakhstan hopes the international consortium of the project Eurasia will be created before the end of this year. Earlier, the Kazakh government planned to create the consortium at the end of 2015.

“We are well understand, that the decision to participate in such a complex project needs a certain time, so I am appealing to potential participants of the future consortium, I want to say that we look forward to your solution before the end of the spring, that is mean, until the end of May,” Bozumbayev told a roundtable in Astana.

He noted that in October 2015 the government approved incentives and preferences for future participants of the Eurasia project. According to the minister, the Ministry of Energy jointly with the Committee of Geology and the national company KazMunayGas have a preliminary talks with potential project participants.

Representatives of international oil and gas and service companies Chevron, CNPC, ENI, ExxonMobil, NEOS Goesolutions, ONGC, Shell, Total, Burisma, LUKoil, T5 took part in the roundtable.

“I do not think, that all these companies will be included in the consortium of Eurasia project. We do not need it. A large number of participants of consortium makes operational decisions difficult. We see it an example of an international consortium on development of Kashagan. We think that optimally would be 5 participants in the consortium Eurasia project,” Baltabek Kuandikov, General Coordinator of the Eurasia project, told EFE on the sidelines of the roundtable.

However, he refused to say which companies intend to enter into this consortium. Baltabekov said the project cost is $520 million, which will be distributed depending on the size of the stake in the project.

Meanwhile, a top Kazakh oil source said on condition of anonymity that the Chinese giant CNPC has already confirmed his participation in the Eurasia project.

The work programme by Eurasia project is collection, reprocessing of geological and geophysical data of previous years, conduct of large – scale geophysical studies, drilling of a super-deep (up to 15 kilometres) parametric well.

Eurasia is an international project for the exploration of deep horizons (over 5 kilometres) of the Caspian Basin, both on land and at sea, in the territory of Kazakhstan and Russia. Its main goal is to study the deep geological structure region for the detection of new large hydrocarbon deposits. The project will develop innovative technologies of drilling ultra-deep wells to a depth of 14 or 15 kilometres.