Overview
| Overview | 2006 | 2007 | 2008(estimated) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total Market Size | 6,086 | 8,738 | 9,600 |
| Total Local Production | 98 | 112 | 115 |
| Total Exports | 12 | 14 | 15 |
| Total Imports | 6,000 | 8,640 | 9,500 |
| Imports from the U.S. | 220 | 438 | 520 |
In USD Millions; Note: the above statiscs are unofficial estimate based on Kazakhstan customs data and industry sources.
Best Products and Services
Oil industry sources estimate that Kazakhstan could eventually attract up to $140 billion of foreign investment in its oil infrastructure. Industry experts and the U.S. Commercial Service in Almaty estimate that the current market for oil and gas field equipment and services will grow to $6.8 billion in 2008, and will continue growing at 15-30% annually over the next three years. There are opportunities for U.S. companies in virtually every sub sector associated with oil extraction, processing, and transportation. The best prospects include: geological exploration, geophysics, hydrogeology, drilling, research and data management, laboratory studies, oil spill cleanup technologies, and pipeline equipment and services.
Kazakhstan as yet has no experience in offshore production and operations. This experience gap offers many opportunities for U.S. service companies in rig work, support infrastructure, and environmentally sensitive technologies. The Caspian Basin's oil-bearing formations are generally quite deep (15,000 feet), under considerable pressure, and often contain a high degree of sulfur and other contaminants, making special Western-made drilling and processing equipment necessary.
U.S. oil and gas field equipment suppliers have the potential for solid growth over the next decade as new fields are brought on-stream and secondary recovery methods are introduced to existing deposits. The most promising sub sectors are the following: offshore/onshore oil and gas drilling and production equipment; turbines, compressors and pumps for pipeline applications; measurement and process control equipment for pipeline applications; industrial automation, control and monitoring systems for refineries, gas processing and petrochemical plants, seismic processing and interpretation, petroleum software development, sulfur removal and disposal technologies, well stimulation and field abandonment services.
Plenty of other opportunities exist for U.S. companies producing oil and gas field equipment and machinery such as drilling and wellhead equipment, Christmas trees, valves, pumps, motors, compressors, electrical submersible and jet pumps, underwater repair equipment, and oil spill containment equipment. Good prospects also exist for U.S. small- and medium-size firms offering downstream engineering and such services as fabrication, welding, engineering services and testing in accordance with API and ASME standards.
Opportunities
In April 2003, the Government of Kazakhstan approved a development program for oil fields in the Caspian Sea. This program will run until 2015. The main developers of the program are the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and KazMunayGas. The program calls for increasing offshore oil production in the Caspian to about 2 million bpd by 2015, and for development of terrestrial infrastructure. In accordance with the Caspian offshore development program, the government plans to put Caspian offshore oil and gas fields up for tender. More than one hundred offshore blocks will be privatized through open tenders.
Output from the country's three major fields, Tengiz, the offshore Kashagan, and onshore Karachaganak, is set to grow to 1.7 million bpd by 2012 and to 2 million bpd by 2015. Most of this year's production increase will come from the Tengiz and Karachaganak fields. The huge offshore Kashagan field is expected to come on stream in 2011-12. The Kashagan oilfield is now estimated at 7-9 billion barrels of recoverable oil. This jump in production is also stimulating planning for processing plants and pipelines to come on-line in time for the start of production.