After 11 years and $39 billion of investment, Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) and their partners have yet to sell a drop of oil from what was touted as the worlds biggest discovery in four decades.
Kazakhstan
Biggest Oil Find in Decades Becomes $39 Billion Cautionary Tale
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Shell’s giant Kazakhstan oil project in crisis
Royal Dutch Shell and its partners are to ask the Kazakh government for an extension to the 2013 deadline for the first oil from their troubled Kashagan field.
By Richard Orange, Almaty, Kazakhstan
5:40AM BST 01 Jul 2011
Kazakh oil minister Sauat Mynbayev has repeatedly threatened the consortium of oil companies with heavy financial penalties if it misses the 2013 final deadline.
The partners, including Shell, Total, ExxonMobil, Eni and Kazakh state oil company KMG, have repeatedly missed start dates beginning as far back as 2005.
A last-ditch plan to meet the 2013 deadline involved pumping at least 50,000 barrels per day of oil directly onshore, bypassing an unfinished processing plant on an artificial island.
Kazakhstan to delay work on vast oil field by three more years
Kazakhstan is planning a three-year halt to work on the main phase of the super-giant Kashagan oil field development, as international oil companies Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil fight to convince the country’s oil ministry to back a simplified design, which would slash costs by $18bn (£11bn) to $50bn.
The Kazakhs are considering shelving the new simplified design, and keeping the field producing at its initial rate of 375,000 barrels per day (bpd) for at least three years. Photo: Getty
By Richard Orange, in Astana 11:30PM BST 04 Apr 2011
The delay, if approved, could push the start of full production from the field well into the next decade, making it all but impossible for Shell and its partners to make an acceptable profit before the contract expires in 2037.
The Kazakhs are considering shelving the new simplified design, and keeping the field producing at its initial rate of 375,000 barrels per day (bpd) for at least three years, after which the NCOC consortium could use a greater understanding of the geology to produce a better design for the second phase, when production is expected to hit 1.5m bpd.
Low Oil Price, Econ Crisis May Cut Kashagan Costs – Shell
March 10, 2009: 07:12 AM ET
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -(Dow Jones)- Low oil prices and the economic crisis may cut costs of development at Kazakhstan’s largest oil field Kashagan, Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s (RDSA) general manager for the Caspian region said Tuesday.
“The economic situation and low oil prices should allow us to bring the cost down,” Campbell Keir told reporters. “But we’re continuing to invest.”
BP will back CPC pipeline expansion if allowed to sell stake
MOSCOW, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Oil major BP will back the long-delayed expansion of the CPC pipeline from Kazakhstan to Russia as early as December if it faces no obstacles in selling its stakes in the pipeline venture, it said on Friday.
Want to do business in Kazakhstan? Learn Kazakh
U.S. oil group Chevron developing Kazakhstan's biggest oil deposit, said on Friday it had received a note from the authorities accusing it of neglecting Kazakh as a language of business communication.
Conoco, Aramco Delay Saudi Refinery
Project delays in the high-cost Canadian oil sands have been announced in the past month by Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Suncor Energy Inc. and Nexen Inc.
French group’s executive appointed to get Kashagan oil flowing by 2012
A recent settlement decided that Total will provide the first managing director of the newly established North Caspian Operating Company. The decision ended more than a year of dispute between the project's international oil company partners - most notably ExxonMobil of the US, and Total, Royal Dutch Shell and Eni of Europe - and the Kazakh government.
Details of the final Kashagan agreement
Kazakhstan and a consortium of Western oil companies developing the Kashagan oilfield signed the final agreement on the future of the project on Friday after more than a year of tense negotiations.
Kazakhs interested in both Oman and BP stakes in CPC
Kazakhstan is interested in acquiring stakes belonging to both Britain's BP and Oman in a key Caspian Sea pipeline pumping Kazakh crude to the Black Sea, a senior Kazakh official said on Wednesday.
The Times: Natural Resources: Monday September 22, 2008
Royal Dutch Shell Kazakhstan said that KazMunaiGas, the state oil company, would create a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil and gas group, to handle the production segment of the Kashagan oilfield.
Shell poised to sign deal with Kazakhstan on oil joint venture
Royal Dutch Shell was on the verge of sealing a deal with Kazakhstan yesterday that could lead to taking joint control of one of the world's biggest oilfields.
Kazakhstan to tie up with Shell for Kashagan oil
ALMATY, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan said on Friday state oil company KazMunaiGas would create a joint venture with Royal Dutch Shell Plc to handle the production segment of the Kashagan oilfield.
Shut up, Borat – the tinderbox of Kazakhstan oil
However, Campbell Keir, Shell's chairman in Kazakhstan, tells an old joke that illustrates just how dominated the country is by Russia and China: "When a Kazakh wakes up, he opens his eye to the west to see if the bear is growling. If it isn't, the Kazakh turns his head to the east to see if the dragon is breathing fire. If it isn't either, the Kazakh gets out of bed."
Price acts as catalyst for switch
That leaves the companies sitting on huge piles of cash. Even with a generous buy-back policy and consistent dividend payment plan, ExxonMobil, the biggest of the bunch, holds more than $40bn
Exxon attacks Kazakh oilfield delays
ExxonMobil, the world's biggest listed integrated energy group, yesterday blamed the government of Kazakhstan for delaying the development of the world's biggest new oilfield, significantly raising the level of acrimony surrounding the troubled project.
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