In the Kyzylorda region, for example, the level of oil production annually drops by 1 million tons. The experience of the Russian company LUKoil can be applied in solving problems with oil production in fields with low profitability.

“In Kazakhstan, there is a large number of highly developed and depleted deposits, especially in the Mangistau region. And oil production, unfortunately, is declining there, profitability is falling” said Akhmetzhan Yesimov, Chairman of the Board of the National Welfare Fund Samruk-Kazyna JSC, in Atyrau today, during a meeting on the republic’s oil and gas complex.

According to him, new technologies and investments are needed for the further development of such deposits and the extraction of residual reserves. This requires changes in legislation and a flexible tax policy. In this regard, the positive experience of Russia can be used, where a number of relevant laws have been adopted aimed at stimulating the production of hard-to-recover oil.

“They envisage, among other things, differentiation of tax rates for some fields, up to exemption from tax” said Mr. Yessimov.

He noted that on this occasion he had talks with the head of PJSC LUKoil Vagit Alekperov and the Russian company is ready to share their experience.

Meanwhile, as Minister of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan Magzum Mirzagaliyev said in his turn at the meeting, it is also necessary to intensify geological exploration, in so-called mature fields, where production levels are already declining today. And such fields, as a rule, provide the local population with jobs. Moreover, the discovery of new deposits takes at least 10-15 years.

“For example, in the Kyzylorda region, the annual production level is reduced by 1 million tons. In the medium term, a decline in production is expected in the Aktobe and Mangystau regions” the minister said.

He said that currently the balance of hydrocarbon reserves in Kazakhstan is 4.5 billion tons of oil and 1.6 trillion cubic meters of gas. Since the beginning of independence, 1.4 billion tons of oil have been extracted in the republic, and the increase in reserves amounted to 2.1 billion tons.

According to the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in 2018 the country produced 90.3 million tons of oil, the plan for 2019 is 89 million tons.