Indonesian venture wins Kazakh oil contract

Indonesia's Central Asia Petroleum Ltd has won a contract to explore and develop 15 oil and gas deposits in the Mangistau Region of western Kazakhstan, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on Monday.

The contract was signed in the new Kazakh capital, Akmola, by Akhmetzhan Yesimov, Kazakh First Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the State Investment Committee, and by Sagyn Krymkulov, president of the Mangistaumunaygaz oil and gas company, in which Central Asia Petroleum has a 60-per-cent share.

At a news conference following the signing, Krymkulov said the company expected production over 25 years to total 106.3m tonnes of oil and 10.6bn cubic metres of natural gas.

The contract is for a period of 31 years, and investment over the first 20 years will total at least 4.1bn dollars, including 2bn dollars in the first five years.

The company expects to spend 21.16m dollars on exploration, more than 997m on capital construction, and over 3bn on production expenses.

Environmental protection measures will cost 270m dollars and another 30m will be spent on infrastructure development and payments in the social sphere.

The company will pay bonuses and royalties totalling about 503m dollars, and the project will generate a total of about 3bn dollars in revenues for Kazakhstan and 1.7bn for Central Asia Petroleum.

Krymkulov said the most promising fields were the Kalamkas and Zhetybau, which are estimated to hold reserves totalling 100m and 70m tonnes of hydrocarbons respectively.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.