Kashagan rush
Undoubtly, the most important event of the last week became the start of the production at Kashagan. As it is known, the production there was planned to be started in 2005, but difficulties with pilot commercial development made investors repeatedly postpone the start of the development. And all the while costs of the consortium increased. Total expenses of the project grew from $57 billion to $136 billion (and according to some reports they have exceeded $180 billion). At the same time, the value of the first stage of the pilot commercial development increased from initial $5 billion to $46 billion. A number of companies (BP, Statoil, BG), sold their shares, left the project and Kazakhstan became one of its big participants.