Karachaganak Field

Karachaganak Field is a gas condensate field in Kazakhstan. It is located about 150 kilometres (93 mi) east of Oral (Uralsk) in the northwest of Kazakhstan. The field was once a massive Permian and Carboniferous reef complex covering an area 30 by 15 square kilometres (11.6 by 5.8 sq mi). At its largest point the reservoir contains a gas column 1,450 metres (4,760 ft) deep with a 200 metres (660 ft) deep oil rim below it. It is estimated to contain 1.2 trillion cubic metres (42 trillion cubic feet) of gas and one billion tonnes of liquid condensate and crude oil. Discovered in 1979, it began production under Karachaganckgazprom, a subsidiary of Gazprom. Kazakhgas took over operatorship after the independence of Kazakhstan in 1992. In 1992, AGIP (now Eni) and the then British Gas (now BG Group) were awarded the sole negotiating rights, forming a partnership company. In 1997, Texaco (now Chevron Corporation) and Lukoil signed a production sharing agreement with the original two companies and the Kazakhstan Government. This is a 40-year agreement to develop the field to allow the production to reach world markets. This is done under a partnership company known as Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO) where BG Group and ENI are joint operators with a 29.25% stake each in the company, with Chevron and Lukoil owning 18% and 13.5% respectively. In September 2009 the KPO filed an arbitration case against Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Maksat Idenov to lead the negotiations, after which the arbitration was suspended towards an amicable settlement of the dispute and KazMunayGas engaged in entrance into the project in 2010. Under the terms of an agreement reached in December 14, 2011, the Republic of Kazakhstan has acquired through KazMunayGas a 10% stake for $2 billion cash and $1 billion non-cash consideration.