Kazakhstan needs pipeline developments

SAN RAMON, Calif., Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Kazakhstan needs major expansions to handle the spike in oil exports expected once the offshore Kashagan field enters full production, Chevron says.

Ian MacDonald, a vice president at the California-based supermajor, said Kazakhstan needs to boost its export capacity quickly to cope with anticipated production levels, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

"With Kazakhstan expected to add a minimum of over 1.5 million barrels a day of production over the coming 15 years, it needs new, dedicated and reliable export capacity, and it needs it urgently," he said.

The offshore Kashagan field was one of the biggest oil discoveries in the past three decades, but it lacks an export pipeline to hand exports.

Plans are in the works for an export system to bring oil from western Kazakhstan to Caspian ports and on to oil transit routes in Azerbaijan. That project, however, may not be completed by the time full production at Kashagan begins, the Journal said.

Kazakh oil made its debut, meanwhile, through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the world's second longest, in November, with promises of 120 million barrels of oil per year. This marked the first time crude oil outside Azerbaijan transited to the pipeline.