Kazakhstan may reduce oil production to 70 million tons at $25/barrel in 2016

Almaty. January 21. Silkroadnews – In 2016 Kazakhstan may reduce crude oil production down to 70 million tons at $25/barrel and 75 million tons at $35/barrel. Such opinion was expressed by a leading researcher of the Center for International Energy Strategy at the People’s University of China Wang Haiyan, KazTAG reports.
“Due to decrease in oil prices Kazakhstan will reduce the extraction volumes in some degree. If the price is 35 (dollars per barrel - Silkroadnews), the production volume may make 75 million tons (per year - Silkroadnews), if, for example, 25 (dollars per barrel - Silkroadnews) – it can be somewhere about 70 million tons only. Such is a state of affairs”, - he said at the international conference “One belt - one road: the modern foreign policy of China” on Wednesday.
He also noted that the stereotypes about the Chinese dominance in the oil sector of Kazakhstan are quite exaggerated.
“In general the questions on the share (of a Chinese business in the total volume of oil production in Kazakhstan - Silkroadnews) are quite often, people ask, write. The impression is that the Chinese companies have a big share in oil and gas sector in Kazakhstan. I found the data and want to share ... for oil reserves of Kazakhstan as a whole the Kazakhstani government’s share is more than 20% followed by 14.6% share of “KazMunayGas” (KMG)”, he said.
“The western companies, these are “Chevron”, “Total”, “Annie”, “BG”, “Exxon Mobil” and so on. Just calculate what is the percentage here - more than 35%. And highlighted in green (on slides - Silkroadnews) the Chinese companies are shown, thus, all the Chinese companies make 6.7% only, that is a small share compared with the Western companies”, he stressed.
A similar picture, he said, is observed in the oil extraction.
“In terms of production – the picture is the same. KMG makes about 15%, Western companies - 35%, Chinese companies – about 18%, the rest is divided between other private companies. That is, it is explanation based on numbers. Just want to adjust the picture if someone maybe has the wrong impression ... It is for 2015 (data on production and reserves shares - Silkroadnews)”, said Wang Haiyan.
At the same time, he said, cooperation with the Chinese oil and gas companies is more beneficial for Kazakhstan.
“Western companies enter into a production sharing agreement, that is, agreements with more preferences, tax privileges, and we got older, more depleted fields that western companies simply were not interested in”, he said.
He found it difficult to answer Silkroadnews, whether the Chinese companies intend to increase their share in the existing Kazakhstani oil and gas projects or take part in the new ones.
“Our field are depleted, thus, eventually the production volume will get reduced, and if there are no new projects, the share could fall. In Kashagan China’s CNPC gained 8.3%, but the next step has not been discussed yet. So far it is only 8.3%”, he said.
Earlier the Energy Minister Vladimir Shkolnik said that Kazakhstan plans to reduce production to 77 million tons of oil in 2016.
“Under production plan of 79 million tons this year (2015 - Silkroadnews) we have produced 79 million 460 thousand tons. Our oil experts tried and overfulfiled the plan a little.  We plan for 2016, taking into account the growing water content of deposits and their depletion, to produce 77 million tons this (2016 - Silkroadnews)”, V. Shkolnik said at the briefing on January 15.