Page 12 - FSUOGM Week 16 2021

FSUOGM PROJECTS & COMPANIES FSUOGM

Caspian secures higher domestic

price for BNG crude

KAZAKHSTAN KAZAKHSTAN-FOCUSED Caspian Sunrise Caspian’s non-executive chairman Clive Carver
has obtained a higher domestic price for oil from said in a statement on April 16.
The junior producer has its flagship BNG asset in the country’s west, help- Shares in Caspian were up 8% by early after-
to sell a good deal of its ing to shore up its financial position. noon on the day of the announcement, trading
crude domestically. The company has to sell a large share of its at GBP00.26. This follows a 15% growth on April
crude on the domestic market, as obtaining 8, after the company reported an operational
export permits is often a slow and arduous pro- update from BNG.
cess for junior producers in Kazakhstan. The In a statement that day, the company said it
government tries to keep some oil supply back had produced 120,000 barrels of oil from BNG
for the domestic refining industry, and these during the first three months of the year, and that
permits are sometimes granted on a well-by- the average price for these supplies had increased
well basis. to $7.27 per barrel from $6. Caspian also said it
Over the past 12 months it has received was undertaking fracking operations to bring its
merely $6 per barrel of oil from BNG domesti- deep wells into production.
cally, but the price has now been raised to $12.4. “With the improving weather we are able to
The hike will provide a significant boost to Cas- increase the pace of our operations at BNG,”
pian’s finances, the company said, even though Carver said earlier this month. “We now have
the price is still far below what it could fetch on three operational rigs and expect a fourth rig to
international markets. become operational in the next few weeks.”
In February, Caspian said it was obliged to sell Caspian currently produces from only the
40-45% of its crude on the domestic market. shallow MJF structure at BNG, but there are
“This news is very welcome and we hope it deeper zones yet to be brought into flow. The
marks the beginning of the closing of the gap deeper drilling needed to target these zones is
between international and domestic prices to costlier, but the rewards are potentially much
levels seen before [coronavirus] COVID-19,” greater. ™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 16 21•April•2021