The Economic Times Thursday, July 04, 2002
Kazakhstan targets China, India oil export REUTERS OVERLAND PARK: Fresh from confirmation last week that Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea shelf holds the largest oil find in 30 years, Kazakh officials said on Monday they were exploring new pipeline routes for transporting the crude into Europe, China and India. The discovery of between 7 billion and 9 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil in the giant Kashagan offshore oilfield will require major new infrastructure as Kazakhstan works to become one of the world's largest energy exporters by the end of this decade, Kazakh officials said. A recently completed pipeline running to Russia's Black Sea is sufficient for Kazakhstan's existing oil export needs, but the country will need additional routes after the newly discovered oilfield begins production by the end of 2005, said Kazakhstan Minister of Energy Vladimir Shkolnik. "If our forecasts come true, after that time we will definitely need additional export routes and we are studying a number of routes," Shkolnik told a group of international investment players and U.S. government representatives. "We look with great interest and China and India; those are the very fast-developing economies in our vicinity," he said. With the Kashagan oilfield discovery, Kazakhstan plans to triple its oil output in 15 years from its current level of 900,000 barrels per day. Experts have called the recent Caspian Sea oilfield find the largest since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay. An international consortium led by Agip and including US-based Exxon Mobil Corp. and Phillips Petroleum Co., has committed to invest $7 billion in the oilfield in the next few years, including $800 million this year. Kassymzhomart Tokaev, Kazakhstan's secretary of state and minister of foreign affairs, said that despite already declared support for a pipeline running from Kazakhstan through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, decisions still needed to be made regarding the feasibility of that route. "Kazakhstan has other no less attractive options for exporting our oil," said Tokaev. Routes via the Ukraine to Europe are being explored, along with a transit route to China and elsewhere. Kazakhstan, a resource-rich Central Asian state five times the size of France but populated by just 15 million, is working closely with the United States to implement widespread economic and political reforms. The former Soviet republic hopes to woo substantial U.S. investment and business, while Washington is looking to Kazakhstan to help reduce US reliance on the volatile Middle East for meeting oil needs. "We see Kazakhstan as a real giant in world energy trade," US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told reporters. "The goal we have is energy security. We want to diversify ... so that supply disruptions are not a threat," he added. The international consortium also includes Britain's BG Group Plc, France's TotalFinAElf, Royal Dutch/Shell and Japan's Inpex. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
