Caspian Sea: State of the Environment 2019

The development and condition of oil produc- tion in Kazakhstan classifies it as a traditional oil and gas producing country, with the industry representing one of its economy’s leading sectors. There are 202 oil and gas fields in Kazakhstan, which have projected recoverable oil and gas re- sources worth 7.8 billion tons 7.1 trillion m 3 re- spectively. Around 70 per cent of these resources are in the western regions of Kazakhstan. Fur- thermore, potential oil and gas reserves on the sea shelf are equal to their total reserves on land (Kazakhstan Business Magazine n.d.). More than 10 multilayer oil and gas condensate fields have been discovered on the Caspian Sea’s sea shelf in the Russian Federation sector. PJSC LUKOIL, a Russian energy corporation, holds licences for the development of eight hy- drocarbon fields on the Caspian Sea shelf. The total recoverable reserves of these fields are about 386.3 million tons of oil and gas condensate and more than 650 billion m 3 of gas, the deposits of which are in the Korchagin, Filanovsky, Yuri S. Kuvykin, Rakushechnoye, Zapadno-Rakushech- noye, Khvalynskoye, Tsentralnoye fields and the 170 km field. The development of these fields is carried out by OOO LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhsk- neft (a limited liability company under Russian Federation law). OOO LUKOIL-Nizhnevolzhskneft has been op- erating in the Northern Caspian since 1995. Cur- rently, the company owns licences for three areas: Severny, Central Caspian and East Rakushechnoye. The Korchagin oilfield was discovered in 2000 and started production in 2010. The field has 16 production wells, with the deposit located 180 km from Astrakhan and 240 km from Makhach- kala. The depth of the sea in this area is 11–13 metres. In 2015, the field produced more than 5 million tons of oil. The Filanovsky deposit is located in the Russian Federation sector of the Northern Caspian in the subsoil use zone. The field was discovered in 2005 and has an estimated oil production worth 6 million tons per year. The field became com- mercially operational in October 2016.

The Rakushechnoye deposit is also located in the Russian Federation sector of the Northern Cas- pian on the sea shelf. The field was discovered in 2001 by the Rakushechnaya-1 exploratory well and is the next project to be developed in the Caspian Sea. The Khvalynskoye oil and gas condensate field is located on the Kazakhstan-Russian Federation border in the Northern Caspian on the sea shelf, 260 km from Astrakhan, where the sea depth varies from 25 to 30 metres. The deposit was dis- covered in 2000 (LUKOIL 2015). In Turkmenistan, the Balkan Region in the west of the country produces the most oil. Develop- ment of oilfields in the region began in the late 1890s, with regular industrial production be- ginning in 1933. There are about 200 oil and gas fields explored in Turkmenistan. Potential domestic hydrocarbon resources are estimated at 71.2 billion tons of oil equivalent, of which 53 billion tons are found inland and 18.2 billion tons in marine areas (Trend News Agency 2016). Reserves in the Galkynysh and Yashlar fields are estimated at 26.2 trillion m 3 of gas, which in- creases to 27.4 trillion m 3 when considering the reserves of the newly discovered Garakel site that is also part of this block (Gurt 2012).

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