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Kazakhstan’s combined crude oil and condensate production reached an all-time high in March, which further exceeded the country’s crude output ceiling under the OPEC+ deal.
Kazakhstan, a non-OPEC producer part of the OPEC+ pact, pumped a record high 2.17 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil plus condensate last month, industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday.
The output in March compares to an average production of 2.15 million bpd of crude and condensate in February.
Crude oil production only rose to 1.88 million bpd in March from 1.83 million bpd in February, according to Reuters’ sources.
Under the OPEC+ agreement, Kazakhstan’s crude oil production quota is 1.468 million bpd. The deal doesn’t cover condensate production and has no limits on it.
Kazakhstan has been consistently overproducing above its OPEC+ limit and is one of the biggest overproducers alongside Iraq and Russia.
This year, the overproduction issue has become even greater after U.S. supermajor Chevron started up oil production at an expansion project at the largest oilfield in Kazakhstan that would boost crude oil output by 260,000 bpd. Chevron achieved first oil at the Future Growth Project (FGP) at the giant Tengiz field. FGP is the third processing plant in operation at the Tengiz oilfield, which expands sour gas injection capability and is expected to ramp up output to 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
Kazakhstan appears to find it hard to convince Chevron and the other supermajors operating in the country to limit production now after years of investing billions of U.S. dollars in oilfield expansions.
Kazakhstan’s crude oil exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) export route also remained high in February and March, but a major disruption could be coming after Russia on Monday ordered a temporary shutdown of two of the three moorings of the main oil export terminal on the Black Sea handling Kazakhstan’s oil exports.
