Astana hopes to raise interest in onshore plays after western oil majors curtailed long-term plans in the country
Оригинальный текст опубликован на сайте «Upstream», 13 October 2023 13:00 GMT . Автор: Материал доступен по .
Kazakhstan has announced a third bidding round for existing oilfields and prospective oil and gas blocks for later this year that will see the introduction of stricter participation terms for online bidding.
The revised rules aim to correct issues that came up in previous auctions where participants could not pay the price of their winning bid.
The announcement of the new round came after international investors started approaching the Kazakhstan-based winners of previous auctions to form joint exploration and development partnerships.
According to the country’s energy ministry, the new tender will be held on 20 December, with participants asked to register and pay a deposit before the deadline of 11 December.
Authorities hope the upcoming round will find new owners for four fields with confirmed oil reserves and 14 prospective acreages, varying in size from 500 to 5000 square kilometres, in onshore provinces with existing oil and gas activity including Mangistau, Atyrau and Aktobe.
The most valuable asset on offer — in the ministry’s view — is the Doschan field in the Kyzylorda region, which carries an initial starting bid of over 186 million tenge ($430,000).
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Located within a larger block of the same name, the Doschan field previously was explored by the Petrokazakhstan oil venture, owned by China National Petroleum Corporation and Kazakhstan’s state-run KazMunayGaz.
Petrokazakhstan had also explored the Zhamansu field in the Kyzylorda region, also listed among the ministry’s assets open for bidding in December.
The venture obtained licenses for the two field in 2004 but subsequent exploration drilling yielded mixed results.
The largest of the prospective areas on offer is the Kendala North block in the Mangistau region covering more than 5000 square kilometres.
This acreage has not been previously explored or licensed, and its hydrocarbon potential has yet to be investigated.
The block is known more for its large uranium ore deposits, which are excluded from the oil and gas exploration effort.
Kazakhstan has been holding tenders to sell exploration and development licenses since 2020, setting up remote online bidding platforms following Covid-19 restrictions. But licenses granted in previous rounds have almost always ended up with Kazakh-incorporated investors or foreign-registered firms linked to local businessmen.
China’s Sinopec and Canada’s Zenith Energy have shown interest in previously tendered assets.
Zenith said in September that it is in talks with Kazakh players to consider the purchase of four oil licences in the Atyrau and Kyzylorda regions.
One of the licenses of interest to the Canadian company was sold at a similar online tender in August this year, it said.