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Astana: Kazakhstan and a consortium of Western oil companies developing the huge Kashagan oilfield have agreed to put off the start of production until 2013, a senior Kazakh government official said on Saturday.
The agreement paves the way for Kashagan's further development after a year of tension between the consortium and the Kazakh government over production delays and cost overruns at the world's biggest oil discovery in 30 years.
In May, Kazakhstan threatened to impose sanctions should the consortium decide to delay production from the $136 billion project, but yesterday, Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev struck a more conciliatory tone.
"Yes, we have put it off," he told reporters.
Earlier he told a government meeting Kazakhstan and the Kashagan group signed a new memorandum on Friday setting out details of Kashagan's future development and fixing the start of its commercial production at October 2013.
"I think this time it will be the last delay," he said.
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