Kazakhstan will likely exceed its original oil output plans for 2024 of 96.2 million tons due to expansion at the Chevron-led Tengiz field, Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov was quoted as saying, defying pressure from OPEC+.
Kazakhstan has cited rising output at Tengiz field as the reason why it has persistently exceeded quotas set by OPEC+, which consists of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Kazakhstan and Russia.
Akkenzhenov was quoted by Russian state news agency TASS as telling a podcast late on Thursday that the expansion at Tengiz had been brought forward ahead of schedule this year, raising output there by 25%.
Therefore, he said, “we will probably finish the year higher” than the planned production level of 96.2 million tons, which is equivalent to around 2 million barrels per day (bpd).
The Kazakh energy ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The country’s energy ministry has repeatedly said it is committed to the OPEC+ agreement.
Under the latest OPEC+ agreement, Kazakhstan’s OPEC+ quota for May rose to 1.486 million bpd from 1.473 million bpd in April.
Western oil majors, including Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni, as well as ExxonMobil and Chevron, are active in oil projects in Kazakhstan.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)