Kazakhstan increased crude oil production in September by 10% compared to August to 6.55 million tons, exceeding OPEC+ quotas, according to two sources familiar with the data and Reuters calculations.
Kazakhstan has been one of the laggards in the OPEC+ deal to curb oil production, persistently exceeding the group’s output quota. For the Central Asian country, that stands at 1.468 million barrels per day.
OPEC+ relies on data from secondary sources such as consultancies and think-tanks who use a barrel/ton conversion rate of 7.5-7.6. Using that ratio, Kazakhstan’s oil production last month reached 1.638 million bpd, or 170,200 bpd more than the quota.
Using the barrel/ton rate of 7.3 that Kazakhstan has previously applied, it still exceeded its output limits by 126,500 barrels per day last month, having produced 1.6 million bpd of crude oil, according to Reuters calculations.
“Oil production excluding gas condensate in September was at the planned level,” the energy ministry said in emailed comments. Kazakhstan was compensating for overproduced volumes in accordance with the compensation plan, it said.
It said the country will largely compensate for overproduction in October due to maintenance at the giant Kashagan oilfield and the stoppage of oil production there.
Kazakhstan has pledged to compensate for oil output exceeding its OPEC+ quota in the first half of this year by September 2025.
OPEC said on Wednesday that at a monitoring panel meeting, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Russia had confirmed that they had achieved full conformity and compensation for oil overproduction according to the schedules submitted for September.
Production in September in Kazakhstan increased thanks to a 30% output boost at the Tengiz field to 687,160 bpd thanks to the completion of maintenance, according to the sources and Reuters calculations.
According to OPEC+, Kazakhstan reduced its oil production in August to 1.450 million bpd from 1.565 million bpd due to the maintenance at Tengiz.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jan Harvey)