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ASTANA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Work to bring onstream the giantKashagan oilfield in Kazakhstan is going to plan and some crudehas already been processed and put in storage, the country'senergy minister said on Wednesday.
Kashagan will increase the country's oil production andEnergy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev reiterated that reducing oiloutput in line with OPEC plans was "not on the agenda" forKazakhstan, Central Asia's biggest crude exporter.
Four wells were already producing at Kashagan with a totaloutput of 90,000 barrels per day, he told reporters. Bozumbayevdid not say how much of that was oil and how much was gas thatwould then be flared or injected back into the reservoir.
The field off Kazakhstan's Caspian coast has cost about $50billion to develop and first started production in 2013, butoutput was suspended shortly after its launch because oftechnical problems with the gas pipelines.
The NCOC consortium developing Kashagan comprises ChinaNational Petroleum Corp, Exxon Mobil, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Total, Inpex and KazMunaiGas.
Kashagan is initially expected to produce 75,000 barrels perday (bpd) in October, rising to between 150,000 and 180,000 bpdin November and December this year. (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov;Editing by Dmitry Solovyov and Susan Fenton)
