-Caveat Lector- Mobil Pushes Ahead with Big Kazakh Oil Plans Reuters 22-DEC-98 ASTANA, Kazakhstan (Reuters) - The head of U.S. oil major Mobil Corp. said Tuesday the company would push ahead with its three big oil and transportation projects in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan despite the slump in world crude prices. "Our objective in Kazakhstan has not changed," Mobil Chairman and CEO Lucio Noto told Kazakh Prime Minister Nurlan Balgimbayev in the capital of Astana. He named the TengizChevroil onshore production venture with Chevron of the United States and Russia's LUKoil, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) and the offshore OKIOC international consortium as Mobil's priorities. At Tengiz he forecast crude output from the huge field to reach 240,000 to 250,000 barrels per day by early 2000 thanks to a new processing unit, the cost of which he pegged at $600 million. Current production was around 200,000 bpd, he added. Mobil has 25 percent in the venture and Chevron 45 percent. Two new wells also had been drilled at Tengiz, Noto told Balgimbayev, and they would be tested in 1999. Noto said the $2.2 billion CPC route, linking Tengiz with Russia's Black Sea oil export outlet of Novorossiisk, would reduce transportation costs for Tengiz partners by around $3 per barrel. Mobil's CPC stake is 7.5 percent. He added that the Offshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC), in which Mobil has a one-seventh equity share, will have spent around $500 million by the time it completes its first test drilling next year. Mobil would not be looking at major new deals in the resource-rich Central Asian state until three priority projects were completed, Noto told reporters after meeting Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. "Our view is that we have enough on the table right now," he said. "When we finish all these, if you want me to do something, then I'll do it," he had told Balgimbayev earlier. Mobil had already invested around $1 billion in Kazakhstan, he estimated. Noto said that Mobil's planned merger with fellow U.S. oil giant Exxon would not affect investments in Kazakhstan. Both companies had expressed their commitment to exploration in the Caspian region. Nazarbayev values the support of major Western investors highly, and Kazakhstan is pinning its long term economic hopes on an oil and gas production boom early next century. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved. ================================= Robert F. Tatman [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Remove "nospam" from the address to reply. NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml POSTING THIS MESSAGE TO THE INTERNET DOES NOT IMPLY PERMISSION TO SEND UNSOLICITED COMMERCIAL E-MAIL (SPAM) TO THIS OR ANY OTHER INTERNET ADDRESS. RECEIPT OF SPAM WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE NOTIFICATION OF THE SENDER'S ISP. ____________________________________________________________________ More than just email--Get your FREE Netscape WebMail account today at http://home.netscape.com/netcenter/mail DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
