Oil Chronicles
BackOil Chronicles. May 2023
May
From May 1, KazTransOil has increased its oil transportation tariffs for export by 2-3 times. The most significant hike was in the cost of loading oil into rail tank cars at the Kasymov oil pumping station in the Atyrau region: from 409.57 tenge per ton (excluding VAT) to 1,213.20 tenge per ton. The oil transshipment at the Shmanov PS to the Kenkiyak - Atyrau pipeline for export outside Kazakhstan has risen from 500 tenge to 1,000 tenge.
Daniyar Mauletov has been appointed Chairman of the Board for Samruk-Kazyna Ondeu. Previously, he served in the financial police and the Financial Monitoring Committee. From 2015-2018, he was the director of the Trading House of Samruk-Energo. From 2019, he was the deputy head of the revenue department for the Almaty region. Samruk-Kazyna Ondeu, formerly known as the United Chemical Company, is a subsidiary of the Samruk-Kazyna fund.
KazTransGas Aimak has completed the construction of a new 60 km high-pressure underground gas pipeline. It connects Kuryk village in the Mangistau region to the Sarsha area and the resort zone "Warm Beach". According to the press service of the Samruk-Kazyna fund, thanks to the pipeline, the Mangistau region soon expects the emergence of a new desalination plant, agricultural greenhouses, hotels, residential buildings, an amusement park, and a golf club. The new mainline will supply clean fuel not only to the resort zone but also to the regional center of Aktau.
The pipeline construction project was a priority for QazaqGaz. The investment in construction amounted to 33.241 bln tenge.
Starting May 8, the national Kazakhstani carrier, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, introduced a temporary ban on the transportation of oil products towards the Black Sea port of Taman, specifically for the consignee Tamanneftegaz JSC. The restrictions are in place until further notice.
As reported by KTZ, the supplies have been limited at the request of the Russian Railways. This was due to a lack of capacity for unloading oil products at the terminal because, on May 3, a drone attack caused a fire in a Tamanneftegaz oil product storage tank, which took almost a day to extinguish.
Taman port terminal has a capacity of 20 mln tons of crude oil, oil products, and liquefied gas annually. Last year, over 1 mln tons of Kazakhstani fuel oil and about 230 thous. tons of liquefied gas were exported through Taman.
KazTransOil has extended its contract with Rosneft for the transportation of 10 mln tons of Russian oil to China annually until January 1, 2034, while retaining the current tariff. The Atasu - Alashankou pipeline with a design capacity of 20 mln tons per year was launched in December 2005 as part of the main "Kazakhstan - China" oil pipeline system.
Thus, considering transit, Kazakhstan has the potential to export 10 mln tons of its own oil through this route. In fact, in 2022, 1.2 mln tons of Kazakhstani oil were sent to China, and in 2021, 0.97 mln tons were sent. In 2023, the ministry plans to ship 1 mln tons of oil along this route.
KazGerMunay (a joint venture between KazMunayGas and PetroKazakhstan) has commenced gas production at the Aksai South gas condensate field in the Kyzylorda region. By the end of the year, KazMunayGas will begin gas supply to consumers from the Rozhkovskoe field in the West Kazakhstan region, according to a company statement. In the medium term, for 2024-2025, they plan to initiate deliveries from the Central Urichtau field at a volume of 1 bln cubic meters of gas annually, and the production of 2.1 bln cubic meters of commercial gas from the Kalamkas and Western Prorva fields in 2027-2030.
The board composition of KazMunayGas has changed. Dauren Karabaev and Arman Kayirdenov have been removed from board membership. At the end of March, Karabaev resigned as the Deputy Chairman of the KMG board and CFO of the company due to his internship in the USA at Chevron's headquarters. It is anticipated that after completing the internship, he may be considered for the position of General Director at Tengizchevroil, a role that a Kazakhstani will hold for the first time.
Arman Kayirdenov served as the Deputy Chairman of the KMG board for refining and petrochemicals. Currently, that position is held by Dmitry Makeev, who is the new board member. Another board member elected is Diana Arysova, replacing Dauren Karabaev.
May 15, at the I Forum of subsoil users in the gas sector of Kazakhstan, QazaqGaz introduced a new formula for the purchase price of gas. Other issues related to pricing and profitability of the gas industry were also discussed.
As stated during the forum by Deputy Energy Minister Askhat Khasenov, "the current average gas price is around $40-50 per 1,000 cubic meters. From the new formula, we expect the price to be at least around $110-120. As a result, the new formula allows for selling gas at 2 to 2.5 times higher, which will in turn attract investments in exploration and development of gas reserves."
The forum's organizer, QazaqGaz, initiated the signing of off-take contracts for the purchase of additional gas volumes with 30 subsoil-user companies. Among them are CNPC-Aktobemunaygas, Kazgermunay, Kazakhoil Aktobe, Zhayikmunay, and others. Under these agreements, the subsoil users intend to independently and at their own expense increase gas production. In return, QazaqGaz will purchase the produced gas at an incentive price.
May 18, during President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's visit to China, agreements were signed in Xi'an between KazMunayGas, QazaqGaz, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) to expand strategic cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
The documents aim to strengthen the partnership of Kazakhstan's national companies with CNPC in exploration, refining, and transportation of oil and gas in Kazakhstan. Specifically, they plan to expand the Kazakhstan-China oil pipeline in the Kenkiyak-Atyrau section, build a second thread of the Beineu-Bozoy-Shymkent gas pipeline, and jointly explore for oil and gas.
QazaqGaz and CNPC have confirmed their intent to sign a natural gas purchase-sale agreement based on the resource base and the pipelines' capacity.