Kazakhstan to appoint owners for some gas deposit sites

/IRBIS, Jan.27, 00/ - REUTERS informs, with the reference to the vice- premier Danial Akhmetov, that the government of Kazakhstan attempts to solve the problem of gas supplies of Mangistau region and intends to find owners for unexplored deposit sites with further production of gas from that sites. "These matters should be examined with the help of some administrations and competent representatives till February 15. You remember the instructions of the president to solve the problem of gas independence", said Akhmetov. There are some gas deposit sites in Mangistau region with no owners. Some of them, such as Sarsenbai, Rakushechnaya, Jetybai with 25 wells and 60- 70 th. cubic meter daily debits, are owned by Mangistaumunaigas. However, this company does not extract gas, since all wells and supplementary equipment are on the balance of previous licensee of the sites. Owners should be appointed to another four sites of Uzen with 2.3 bln cubic meters of reserves, and Tolkyn with 12.7 bln reserves. Gas is not extracted from Shogyrly-Shomshyty site with 20.2 bln cubic meters of estimated reserves. Current demand of the region for gas is about 200 th. cubic meters, say the representatives of Mangistau region. Half of the demand is satisfied by supplies of Usenmunaigas. Some gas is also received from Tengiz, though it is difficult to transport. Gross production of gas rose 25.6% last year compared to 1998, at 0.943 bln cubic meters, and commodity output grew 35.8%, at 0.651 bln cubic meters.