Kazakhstan expects its oil production to stay around last year's levels until 2016, when it hopes to restart the giant Kashagan oil field halted by an industrial accident, a senior Kazakh official said Wednesday.
The Central Asian nation aims to produce 81.8 million tons (1.64 million barrels per day) of crude this year, Deputy Energy Minister Magzum Mirzagaliyev told reporters on the sidelines of an international oil and gas conference.
"Next year production is expected to be at the 2014 level," he said.
The second-largest ex-Soviet oil producer after Russia raised its oil output to 81.7 million tons last year from 79.2 million tons in 2012.
A further increase in production after the 3 percent rise last year has been thwarted by delays at the giant Kashagan oil field in the Caspian Sea.
