Chen Mo didn't just know about the Kashagan field because of the recent news. In Lang Yufu's memory, this oil field is also the world's largest quagmire since the new century, and in this project, I don't know how many companies have been brought down and how many shareholders have been replaced. From 2000, when the oil field was discovered, to 2015, when Lang Yufu was reborn, this world-class oil field has not really produced a drop of oil.

The proven reserves alone have reached 35 billion barrels, and at the current price, the output value of this oil field can reach more than $800 billion. If the price is more than 100 dollars in the future, this figure will be doubled several times, but this is also a big pit, a big hole for countless people.

The Kashagan project was initially contracted by the Caspian Shelf Corporation, Eni, British BG, BP, Statoil, Mobil, Shell and Total.

In September 1998, in order to carry out geological exploration work, the above-mentioned eight companies established the Kazakhstan Offshore International Operations Company (OKIOC), of which BP and Statoil were merged into one, so that the seven shareholders shared the interests of the project, each accounting for 14.28% of the shares. In the same year, Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea Continental Shelf Company sold its interest in OKIOC to Japan's International Petroleum Exploration Corporation and ConocoPhillips of the United States, each with a 7.14% share.

In 2001, BP and Statoil withdrew from OKIOC (9.52% BP and 4.76%) and transferred their respective interests to OKIOC. In the same year, OKIOC appointed the Agip International Consortium as the driller for the Kashagan Project.

In the spring of 2003, the British BG announced its withdrawal from the Kashagan project, and the project's shareholder, Enia Gyep, exercised its pre-emptive options. In April 2005, the Kazakh government became a shareholder of the Kashagan project through the purchase of BG's 8.33% stake in the Kashagan project through the Kazakh State Oil and Gas Company.

According to the production sharing contract signed between the project and the Government of Kazakhstan, the Kashagan field was supposed to carry out industrial trial production in June 2005, but due to financial and technical reasons of the operator, the industrial trial production was subsequently postponed to the end of 2008. The Kazakh government agreed to the extension request. $150 million in compensation was awarded for this purpose.

In July 2007, due to the huge amount of development work and many technical problems, coupled with the increase in the price of equipment and materials, the increase in development costs and other reasons, the start time of trial production of Kashagan Oilfield was postponed from the end of 2008 to the second half of 2010, and the development cost of the oilfield increased from 57 billion US dollars to 136 billion US dollars. On August 27, the Kazakh government declared that the Kashagan project had violated environmental laws and was forced to suspend it for another three months.

In 2008, the Kazakh government proposed to revise the production sharing agreement and increase the percentage of profit oil from 10% to 40%. The international consortium led by Eniajep finally agreed to increase KMG's share in the project from 8.33% to 16.81%, reaching the same level as the large foreign companies in the consortium, and since then, the conflict has been temporarily eased. In June of the same year, the consortium signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kazakh government to further postpone the date of industrial trial production in the Kashagan field from 2010 to 2013.

Since the implementation of the project in 2000, the shareholders, equity ratio, and operating model of the Kashagan Project have continued to change, and by the end of 2008, the North Caspian Operations Company (NCOC) consortium was recognized as the operator of the project.

According to the division of labor, the work is progressing gradually as planned. On May 23, 2012, the Kazakh government signed an agreement with the shareholders of the NCOC consortium to "coordinate certain issues of the North Caspian Sea Project", agreeing to start industrial trial mining operations from the end of 2012 to June 2013. And agreed to rely on the project consortium funds to finance the investment part of KMG's project in 2012~2013; The Kazakh Gas Transportation Company and the consortium signed a long-term agreement for the sale and purchase of natural gas from the Kashagan field, guaranteeing that 83% of the natural gas output from the Kashagan field will be supplied to the Kazakh domestic market by 2041.

However, the Kashagan field is located in the shallow waters of the mouth of the Volga and Ural rivers in the northern part of the Caspian Sea. The water depth is 3~4 meters, and the water depth in the Aktot and Kaylan oilfields is even shallower, only 1~2 meters. The northern part of the Caspian Sea has a strong continental climate, with maximum summer temperatures of 40°C; The lowest temperature in winter is -40°C. Winter. Due to the injection of a large amount of fresh water from the Volga, Ural and Terek rivers, the salinity of the sea water is low, resulting in a period of nearly five months of freezing in the waters of the work area from November to March of the following year. The average thickness of the ice layer is 0.6~0.7 meters. Therefore, oil and gas operation facilities need to have the ability to resist the impact of ice floe. In summer, due to the impact of storm surges, sea levels fluctuate dramatically, making transportation difficult. The Caspian Sea is an almost closed water body, only the north has a large river flowing, the latitude of the work area is high, the natural conditions are harsh, the ice period is long, the transportation of materials and equipment, and the logistics supply are difficult, and the cycle is long, which affects the project period.

In addition, this oil and gas field is structurally located in the Aktobe-Astrakhan uplift belt on the southern margin of the Caspian Basin. The oilfield has a large structural scale and a large thickness of the reservoir section, and the production layer is the subsalt carbonate rock of the Caspian Basin, with a buried depth of about 4200~5500 meters, with abnormally high formation pressure and formation temperature, and the crude oil contains high hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, high gas-oil ratio, and also contains mercaptan. Therefore, more stringent technical requirements are put forward for mining technology and mining equipment. These factors further lead to the difficulty and long cycle of drilling, exploitation and subsequent oil and gas treatment.

Due to the complexity of the exploitation process, the Kashagan oilfield is planned to be developed in three phases: the first stage (industrial trial production) will produce 370,000 barrels per day, which can be increased to 450,000 barrels per day, and about half of the associated gas produced will be reinjected into the formation; Phase 2 (industrial extraction) with production of 1 million b/d; Phase 3 production peaked at 1.5 million b/d.

Due to the harsh natural geography and complex extraction technology of the Kashagan field, the development of the oil field requires the use of high-quality, modern equipment and materials, which cannot be produced in Kazakhstan at present. However, in order to develop the country's oil industry and enhance the competitiveness and market position of its own enterprises, the Kazakh government has given support to its own manufacturing enterprises through legal means, requiring the purchase and use of a certain proportion of materials, projects and services produced in Kazakhstan in oil and gas operations, and penalties will be imposed if they are not completed. Although Kazakhstan's offshore oil equipment manufacturing capacity is extremely limited, the NCOC consortium still supports Kazakhstan's domestic production enterprises to the greatest extent, such as entrusting Kazakhstani enterprises to build the first barge weighing 2,700 tons, and ensuring that Kazakhstan accounts for 80% of employees during the peak period of oil and gas surface construction. Despite this, Kazakhstan has a weak offshore oil industrial base. and the materials produced by local enterprises, which still cannot meet the high process, technology, environmental protection and safety requirements of the project.

In order to protect the waters of the Caspian Sea, the Kazakh government has put forward strict requirements for environmental protection. In order to solve environmental problems and reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas operations, NCOC has implemented a series of projects, such as the first pilot project of drill cuttings reinjection into the formation for the treatment of drill cuttings. International experience has shown that this technology is feasible in the Kashagan field. The Kashagan oilfield's high-sulfur compounds and thiol-toxic natural gas pose a serious threat to the health of residents within 70 kilometers of the oilfield. To this end, the process of direct reinjection of hydrogen sulfide-containing natural gas into the formation has been successfully implemented in the Kashagan field. This not only reduces environmental pollution and solves the problem of hydrogen sulfide utilization, but also maintains formation pressure and improves oil recovery.

With the soaring international oil prices, the Kazakh government has strengthened its control over resources by constantly revising the regulations of the oil and gas industry. In order to further strengthen the management of the oil and gas industry, in March 2010, the Kazakh government reorganized the former Ministry of Energy and Mines into the Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas, and revised the "Resources Law" in June. In this way, it will strengthen its control over oil and gas resources politically and fight for national interests economically. The Law on Quotas in Kazakhstan was promulgated, which stipulates the proportion of materials, projects, services and employees used in oil and gas production operations. If the required ratio is not met, penalties will be imposed, and even the license to use the resource will be revoked.

All in all, this project has many difficulties. First, major companies have come in and out, and oilfield projects have been repeatedly postponed. Second, it is driven by interests. The struggle between all parties is endless, and the third is the natural conditions of the harsh climate, which increases the difficulty of project implementation. Fourth, complex geology and oil and gas properties, which have high requirements for mining technology and equipment. Fifth, Kazakhstan's offshore oil industry has a weak foundation. It also forced domestic companies to join, resulting in slow progress of the project. Sixth, the environmental protection requirements of the Caspian Sea area where the oil field is located are strict, and the environmental protection risk of the project is large.

These six factors led to a great feast for all. But he couldn't eat it in his mouth.

Therefore, although Chen Mo learned the news at the beginning, he never moved, not to mention that he has no money now, even if he has money in the future, he will not take the initiative to enter this big hole that can bring down large companies.

At the time of Lang Yufu's rebirth, National Fuel spent $5 billion to acquire 8.33% of the equity and participated. But by that time, most of the problems had been solved, and the dawn of victory could be seen. Moreover, Petronas is involved, not so much as economic interests, but political interests.

This kind of cooperation is not suitable for Chen Mo to participate in, he can't afford to play such a game. Therefore, he had a lot of suspicions about Yabinlovsky's mention of this oil field.

Yabinlovsky nodded and said: "Both Mr. Berezovsky and Mr. Abu have a strong interest in this oil field, you know, just this oil field, when the production is stable, there is nearly 100 million tons of oil production a year. ”

Chen Mo smiled: "But I don't have any influence in Kazakhstan, and this oil field is not very attractive to me, I know my own strength, and I am satisfied to be able to participate in some small projects." ”

"Yes, you are not suitable to participate in such a project right now, but Siberian Oil Company can, and so can PetroChina and Petronas, and if we cooperate and put pressure on the Kazakh government, we should also get a satisfactory result."

Chen Mo frowned and thought for a while, and asked, "But I still don't know, what kind of role can I play in this?" And what benefits do I get? ”

"Siberian Oil Company also has a small oil field in Aktobe, less than 100 kilometers away from the Gennaror oil field, with a daily output of about 500 tons of crude oil, although the production is not high, but it has not yet entered the decay period, I don't know if this sincerity is enough?"

Chen Mo became interested and asked, "How many proven reserves are there?" ”

"More than three million tons."

(There's another chapter in the evening, but it's going to be midnight...... This chapter is a bit too data, please forgive me once in a while, but fortunately it doesn't exceed 3500 words. (To be continued.) )