Kazakhstan has announced plans to hold an auction for the exploration of more than 20 major sites, despite low interest in the current auction, the final stage of which was postponed due to an insufficient number of applications.

Oil Export and Production

Kazakhstan accounts for about 2% of global oil exports. Recently, the country was forced to reduce production and exports due to drone attacks in the Black Sea targeting tankers waiting to load Kazakh oil from the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal near the Russian port of Novorossiysk.

Parameters of the New Auction

According to the Ministry of Energy, online bidding for the recently announced auction is scheduled for November 18. Investor applications will be accepted until October 5. The ministry expects the greatest interest in two adjacent sites—Samtyr South and Samtyr North—with a combined starting price of 189 million tenge (USD 394,000). Both sites cover about 11,000 square kilometers in the Mangystau region in western Kazakhstan and are believed to contain mainly natural gas.

Other Promising Sites

In northern Kazakhstan, two more sites have been allocated—Severny Turgay-1 and Severny Turgay-2—with minimum prices set at 95 and 99 million tenge, respectively. Their total area is about 9,100 square kilometers in the Kostanay region. The auction also includes three additional sites in Kostanay region, which borders Russia’s oil and gas region of Bashkortostan, where hydrocarbon development began back in the 1930s.

The list of proposed sites also includes a small, old oil field in the Aktobe region, where it is possible to extract high-viscosity bituminous oil from a depth of just 65 meters.

History of Previous Auctions

Online bidding for the previous auction was postponed from July 29 to August 11 due to lack of interest. As a result, applications were received for only nine out of the 30 proposed sites.