Billions more tonnes of oil can be found in Kazakhstan, says Ecology Ministry

Billions more tonnes of oil can be found in Kazakhstan, says Ecology Ministry

Billions of tonnes of oil and gas may be found in Kazakhstan when analyzing poorly explored areas of the country, forecasted Kazakh Ministry of Ecology, Geology and Natural Resources. The ministry proposes to attract private investments in order to search for new deposits. A new state program for the exploration of under-researched territories will help in achieving this goal. It will include mechanisms that will encourage investors to explore the subsoil at their own expense. For this, it is planned to devise a special procedure for monitoring unexplored areas. Kazakhstan’s mineral and raw materials resources include 15 oil and gas sedimentary basins, the projected resources of which amount to 76 billion tonnes of fuel equivalent. Five of the sedimentary basins are under-researched. Their total resource forecast accounts for approximately 4.7 billion tonnes. These are the North Torgai, Aral, Syrdariya, Shu-Sarysu and Irtysh basins.