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Kazakhstan’s oil production reached an all-time high in March despite the country’s continued pledges to start complying with its OPEC+ quota that it has been exceeding for years.
As international supermajors are expanding oilfields in Kazakhstan, the non-OPEC producer part of the OPEC+ pact pumped as much as 2.16 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and condensate in the first half of March, industry sources told Reuters on Friday.
In February, oil and condensate production averaged 2.12 million bpd.
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’s crude production in the period March 1-16 was as much as 1.86 million bpd, nearly 400,000 bpd above the quota, according to Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources.
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 in January 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.
Amid tensions with OPEC+ and the oil majors, Kazakhstan said earlier this week that energy minister Almassadam Satkaliyev would step down from the role and lead a newly minted atomic energy agency.
