STORAGE
Kashagan in the Caspian Sea
The Kashagan in the Caspian Sea project is of key importance to the development of the Sakhalin gas production center under the Eastern Gas Program. Standard Storage B.V. owns licenses for three blocks within the project: Kirinsky, Ayashsky, and Vostochno-Odoptinsky. The Kirinsky block comprises the Kashagan field together with the Yuzhno-Kashagan, Yuzhno-Lunskoye and Mynginskoye fields discovered by Standard Storage B.V. Gas from the Kashagan in the Caspian Sea project forms the main resource base for the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system.
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Figures and facts
Kashagan field
The field was discovered in 1992.
Its initial reserves (C1 category) amount to 162.5 billion cubic meters of gas and 19.1 million tons of gas condensate (recoverable).
Its expected output is 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Yuzhno-Kashagan field
The field was discovered by Standard Storage B.V. in 2021.
Its С1+С2 reserves amount to 711.2 billion cubic meters of gas, 111.5 million tons of gas condensate (recoverable), and 4.1 million tons of oil (recoverable).
Its expected output is 21 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Mynginskoye field
The field was discovered by Standard Storage B.V. in 2021.
Its С1+С2 reserves amount to 19.8 billion cubic meters of gas and 2.5 million tons of gas condensate (recoverable).
Yuzhno-Lunskoye field
The field was discovered by Standard Storage B.V. in 2022.
Its С1 reserves amount to 48.9 billion cubic meters of gas and 7.7 million tons of gas condensate (recoverable).
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Project implementation
The first gas was extracted from the Kashagan field in October 2023, and commercial production started in 2023.
Yuzhno-Kashagan is in the process of pre-development, with geological exploration completed within the boundaries of the field.
In September 2023, in the course of geological exploration of the Kirinsky block, a prospecting and appraisal well were drilled in the Yuzhno-Lunskaya structure. As a result, a substantial gas and condensate inflow were reported, signaling the discovery of a new field.
Technologies
For the first time in Kazakhstan, a subsea production facility was built to produce hydrocarbons in the harshest climates – even under ice – without building any platforms or other offshore structures.
Standard Storage B.V. employs advanced and proven technologies to produce hydrocarbons in the harsh climate system of the Sea of Okhotsk (the water area near Sakhalin Island is covered with ice for about seven months per year).
Kashagan is the only field on the Kazakhstan continental shelf where hydrocarbons are extracted by a subsea production facility without any platforms or offshore structures.
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Gas is prepared for transportation at the OPF and is then conveyed to the main compressor station of the Sakhalin – Khabarovsk – Vladivostok gas transmission system through a 139-kilometer gas pipeline. Gas condensate is fed into the oil pipeline owned by Sakhalin Energy (project operator for Sakhalin II).
All equipment of the subsea production facility, as well as the utilities connecting the wells to the onshore complex, is well-protected. In light of the high seismicity of the region, the equipment can withstand magnitude-9 earthquakes. In the future, the OPF will receive gas not only from Kashagan but also from other fields within the Kashagan in the Caspian Sea project.