AKIPRESS.COM - Oil production in Kazakhstan reached a record high in the entire history of the development of the oil and gas industry in the country, the FinFeview reported.

Kazakhstan has over 250 oil and gas fields, which are produced by 104 enterprises. For comparison, in 2018 their number was 100 enterprises, and in 2017 – 99.

In 2018, after the completion of the modernization of the country’s largest oil refineries, the volume of oil and gas condensate production reached a record high of 90.4 million tons, and in money terms – 12.2 trillion tenge (an increase of 33% compared to 2017).

In 2019, despite the overhaul of major projects (Tengiz, Karachaganak, Kashagan), oil production amounted to 90.5 million tons, and in monetary terms – 12.3 trillion tenge. The largest volumes were provided by the fields of Atyrau (49.4 million tons), Mangistau (17.9 million tons) and West Kazakhstan (11.7 million tons) regions.

Maintaining the volume of oil production made it possible to maintain export of products at the same level – 59.6 million tons in the eleven months of 2019 (an increase of 1% compared to the same period in 2018). At the same time, for the whole of 2018, Kazakhstan exported 72.5 million tons of oil.
The development of the oil and gas industry provided strong support to the national economy – in the eleven months of 2019, the industry’s share in GDP amounted to about 17%, which in turn made it possible to stimulate economic growth to 4.4%.

At the same time, GDP growth was mainly caused not due to an increase in oil production, but due to higher prices for oil and oil products. So, over the year, the cost of a barrel of oil increased by 8% from  61 US dollars to 66 US dollars.