Betty/Faris / Huddleston / Kazakh Government
Re: Huddleston's reputation, I'm an analyst, not an upstream guy, so I don't even pretend to know the names of all the reserve valuators out there, but I'll check around and see what I can find.
Regarding the blow-out, if this really happened, then why didn't somebody simply go back in and do a proper flow test? That could've given them at least some "proven" or "probable" reserves. Unfortunately, the press release only mentions "possible" reserves. So what gives? Furthermore, it only mentions gas and condensate, not oil. Oil as a liquid product is a fungible commodity that can be readily exported (liquids don't compress much), but gas is a more difficult beast. It must be located nearby a major commerical demand source due to the inherent difficulties and costs of transporting gases (i.e., compressors and pipelines only, tankers need not apply). Lots of trillion cubic feet gas fields around the world never get developed for this very reason. Gas is simply a more local commodity than oil.
Regarding the Kazakhstan government's intentions, all of this information is coming from Gary's press release. Has anyone confirmed these facts through an independent source? Has anyone called Huddleston? Has anyone seen any announcements from the Kazakhstan government? Seems awfully quiet out there but for the AIPN trumpet playing. (bg)
A good friend of mine here on SI is a senior drilling engineer that works for British Gas in Kazakhstan, and he would be a great person to bring into this discussion. Unfortunately, he's working in the Steppes for another week before he returns home on his 28-on/28-off rotation. But if things are still jumping when he gets back, I'll invite him over. Good guy; very knowledgeable technically (his posts are considered lecture material), and he has a great sense of humor to boot!
Razor |
