Kazakhstan, which has been provoking tensions in OPEC+ through continuous breaches of its production ceiling, has no plans to cut oil production in May, Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said.
Central Asia's top crude oil producer will churn out 277,000 metric tons of condensate and crude each day on average during May, the same as in April, and versus 260,000 metric tons in March, the Astana-based Energy Ministry said in an email.
For consecutive months, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies committed super-sized production increases that left traders bewildered and drove prices down. The action was prompted largely by cartel leader Saudi Arabia's wish to punish member nations, including Kazakhstan, that have routinely overrun their quotas.
The kingdom threatened at its most recent meeting on May 3 that it will witness further production increases if the cartel's quota evaders fail to fall into line. Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry clarified on Tuesday that it is considering its options on how to execute its OPEC+ obligations to cut output, without offering any further details.
In the OPEC+ agreement, Kazakhstan is scheduled to pump around 1.4 million barrels of crude per day this month. The country's planned output for May, including condensate that is not part of OPEC+ quotas, will be about 2 millions barrel per day based on estimates by Bloomberg using Energy Ministry data and a conversion factor of 7.33 tons to barrels. Kazakhstan typically produces about 260,000 barrels per day of condensate, a type of a light oil.
In the midst of the disputes with other OPEC+ producers, Kazakhstan has insisted that it has minimal leverage over production at projects in the country operated by foreign companies.
Chevron Corp. Chief Executive Mike Wirth stated last week that his company has received no guidance from the government to throttle its massive Tengiz oil project, much of which is responsible for a recent surge in production in Kazakhstan. Italy's Eni SpA also made similar comments regarding the giant Kashagan oil field.