ALMATY — A consortium developing Kazakhstan's giant Kashagan oilfield said Thursday it needed a few weeks to resume production cut by an industrial accident Oct. 9, which means commercial output will not go ahead this month as planned.
Kazakhstan, Central Asia's largest economy, has been looking forward to revenues from Kashagan, the world's costliest project, which took nearly 13 years and about $50 billion to complete.
But two weeks after its Sept. 11 launch, production was halted after a gas leak was detected on a pipeline running from the offshore field to an onshore processing facility. It resumed Oct. 6.
A similar leak was detected just days later, leading to a repeated stoppage of output.