The signing of documents on the establishment of a joint venture between the LLP KMG Drilling & Services (a subsidiary of KazMunaiGas) and Nabors Drilling International Ltd (the world leader in oil and gas drilling) took place in Astana, the correspondent of Today.kz writes.

The new joint venture KMG Nabors Drilling Company will carry out drilling at Tengiz in the ongoing work and future expansion of the project.

KMG Nabors Drilling has been created within the framework of Tengizchevroil’s commitment made to Kazakhstan government which are reflected in the corresponding bilateral memorandum of understanding. According to agreements, Tengizchevroil will finance the purchasing of new drilling rigs for KMG Nabors Drilling Company joint venture.

KMG Nabors Drilling Company’s head office will be located in the city of Atyrau, while the company itself will give an opportunity to create up to 200 jobs in the region for highly skilled personnel, where 90% of the staff will be the citizens of Kazakhstan. Tengizchevroil operates on the license area in Kazakhstan which includes the super-giant Tengiz field and Korolevskoe field which is smaller, but has large reserve.

The recoverable reserves of Tengiz and Korolevskoe fields are estimated at 750 mln-1.1 bln metric tons of oil. The total explored reserve in the drilled and undrilled areas of the collector of Tengiz field is estimated at 3.1 bln tons (26 bln barrels). The volume of oil reserve at Korolevskoe field is estimated at 188 mln tons 51.5 bln barrels, which accounts for one-sixth of Tengiz field’s reserve.