Chevron Corporation estimated its Tengizchevroil affiliate in Kazakhstan will see its total daily production increase by 250,000 barrels to 300,000 barrels as it offered more details about an expansion project expected to enter a front-end engineering design phase for a new production unit this year.
The production figure is slightly more optimistic than the estimate given on Tuesday by Tengiz, Kazakhstan’s largest crude producer, which is calling for an increase of 260,000 barrels a day by 2017.
Tengiz, located on the shore of the northern Caspian Sea, is the deepest producing giant oilfield in the world. Its owners are Chevron (50%), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) (25%), Kazmunaigaz NOP, the state oil company (20%) and LukArco (5%).
Chevron also estimated total costs for a trio of projects–at $20 billion to $25 billion.
The investment program includes building a new crude-processing plant, a separate pressurizing unit that will make the new and existing plants work more efficiently, and drilling about 20 new wells.
Tengiz has estimated the new production unit, the Future Growth Project, or FGP, would cost $7 billion to $8 billion and would produce only crude. The associated gas and sulfur would be re-injected into the field, increasing both daily output and the total amount of recoverable oil. Chevron on Wednesday estimated a range of $6 billion to $8 billion and said upcoming work would refine the forecast range.
