OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2014. The final inspection of pipelines at Kashagan is scheduled in April. This was announced by Kazakhstan Minister of Oil and Gas Uzakbai Karabalin in the Majilis.

"Investigation for final control over 25 spots of sea pipeline is planned in April," U. Karabalin reported.

According to him, currently some problems in the pipeline infrastructure of the field have been identified. "More than 2 thousands of welds were checked, intratubal and ultrasonic diagnostics of over 6000 meters of pipeline were conducted, data processing in specialized laboratories has been performed to complete elimination of such situation in the future," he said.

The presence of oil in the field has been confirmed, the well are functioning normally, the head of MOG informed at government hour. "Some problems in pipelines should not affect the overall system, and difficulties revealed must be carefully considered for the subsequent minimization," he added.

We would remind you that oil production at Kashagan field began on 11 September 2013. However, exploitation was suspended on September 24. There were found a gas leaks from the ground pipeline coming from the island D to the factory "Bolashak". After repair of pipeline, oil production had been resumed. But production from the field was re-suspended on October 9: a gas leak was revealed on the pipeline. The reason for this was the pipeline cracking under the influence of sulfide compounds.

Initially it was assumed that production at Kashagan will be 8 million tons in 2014 and will rise to 12 million tons in 2015, which would allow Kazakhstan to enter the top ten largest oil-producing countries.

Participants of the project are the companies Eni, Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, Inpex, KazMunaiGas. Last year, the Chinese CNPC joined instead of ConocoPhillips.

Implementation of the project for future expansion of the field "Karachaganak" will be completed by 2017.

"Payments to the budget amounted to about USD 12 billion during 15 years of the project’s history. On the agenda – to identify possible future expansion of the project and design organization. This process will be completed by 2017 to implement the project in 2022," Karabalin said.

According to him, the field produced nearly 12 million tons of liquid hydrocarbons and more than 17 billion cubic meters of gas in 2013.

"Reached level of production at the current phase of development is planned to support in the coming years," he noted.

Karachaganak project is implemented in Kazakhstan by BritishGaz, Eni, Chevron, Lukoil and KMG companies.

Construction of 311 km of the linear part of the pipeline "Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent" should be completed until the end of the year.

The minister noted that the first stage of large-scale project "Beineu-Bozoi-Shymkent" on the section "Bozoi-Shymkent" was completed in 2013.

"At this stage rated capacity of up to 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year has been reached, gradual increase in capacity of the pipeline to 10 billion cubic meters per year is planned in the future," U. Karabalin said.

According to him, this project will supply gas to the southern import- dependent regions of Kazakhstan and gasify more than 500 settlements of the country.

"The first phase of the project has allowed to smooth traditional stoppages in the south in winter. Construction on the linear part of 311 km "Beineu - Bozoi" section should be completed until the end of this year," U. Karabalin added.