Operators of Kazakhstan’s giant Karachaganak gas condensate field plan to further boost its output by 2026 with the installation of another compressor unit, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s office said on Thursday.

Karachaganak currently operates with four compressors which inject sour gas back into the reservoir to boost pressure and increase the output of liquid condensate.

The field’s operators – Chevron CVX.N, Eni ENI.MI, Shell SHEL.L, LUKOIL LKOH.MM and KazMunayGaz KMGZ.KZ – are already adding a fifth compressor in a $970 million expansion project they plan to complete by 2024, Tokayev’s office said in a statement, a year earlier than previously announced.

Tokayev, who visited the field in western Kazakhstan on Thursday, was told that a sixth compressor would be installed by 2026 at a cost of $735 million to further boost production.

It was unclear from the statement how that would affect annual output, which currently stands at 11.3 million tonnes, but Tokayev’s office said the expansion would increase total production throughout the life of the contract – until 2038 – by 46 million tonnes.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Alexander Smith)