Astana, 4 November, . Askhat Khasenov, chairman of the management board of KazMunayGas, named the company’s reserves confirmed by the state commission, 785 million tonnes, and said that at production of 26 million tonnes a year they would last more than 45 years.
Khasenov spoke on the sidelines of the government on 4 November. The company, he said, always carries out its own technical and economic assessment of reserves at any field where it participates, and the result is confirmed by the state reserves commission. The 785 million tonnes include both fields where KMG is the operator and joint ventures. Rounding up to 800 million tonnes, he named a period of more than 45 years, but immediately qualified that this is not a horizon: exploration continues, and discovered inflows are put on the balance at once, so the resource base is constantly replenished. Prime also gave the same figures.
In the reporting KMG publishes on its website, reserves are counted differently: proven and probable hydrocarbon reserves (2P) at 31 December 2025 were 724 million tonnes of oil equivalent according to an audit by the independent company DeGolyer and MacNaughton under the international PRMS standard, 1.1% more than a year earlier, while production of oil and gas condensate in 2025 was 26.2 million tonnes, 10% more. This is a different valuation system from the state commission’s, so the figures of 785 and 724 million tonnes are not directly comparable; in what units Khasenov counted the 785 million tonnes is not specified in the reports. The company’s 2025 annual report is also available as an interactive version.
Exploration also produced additions in 2026, though small ones. At the Akshabulak, Aksai and Nuraly fields in Kyzylorda region, KazGerMunai drilled seven appraisal wells in 2021–2026, six of which yielded oil flow, and the confirmed increase in initial recoverable reserves exceeded 1 million tonnes; four more wells with an expected increase of about 500,000 tonnes are planned for 2027–2029, as was reported at the October KMG–CNPC seminar. In the Coastal Zone of the Karazhanbas field, after eight appraisal and 12 production wells were drilled, geological reserves rose to 12 million tonnes and recoverable reserves to 3 million tonnes, and the drilling plan was raised from 25 to 48 wells, KMG’s press service said in July. These are a few million tonnes against hundreds, so they do not explain the gap between 785 and 724 million tonnes; as of what date and under what classification Khasenov’s figure (“today”, in his words) was calculated is not disclosed in the publications. The company publishes a new PRMS estimate together with its annual results.
KMG’s main additions are so far in plans. Ozenmunaigas expects an increase in geological reserves of 980,000 tonnes by year-end (drilling of a deep appraisal well at West Tenge is due to begin in late October); Embamunaigas counts on an increase in recoverable oil reserves of 15 million tonnes under its 2026–2031 additional exploration programme, and Mangistaumunaigas on 38 million tonnes under its roadmap to 2032. KMG’s portfolio, Khasenov said, has 23 projects with geological resources of about 4.7 billion tonnes of standard fuel and 26 exploration wells; resources are not yet reserves and must be confirmed by drilling. At the Karaton Podsolevoy block in Atyrau region, a gas flow was obtained in February when the first target of a deep well was tested, and no reserves for it are named in the report.
These are the company’s own reserves, not the country’s: KMG counts the fields it operates and its stakes in joint ventures. The state balance is wider and includes both the largest projects and the fields of other subsoil users. In December 2023 Khasenov, then vice minister of energy, gave figures for the whole country: the state balance holds 15.5 billion tonnes of geological and 4.4 billion tonnes of recoverable oil reserves in categories A, B and C1, and at production of 100 million tonnes a year this would last 40–45 years. He also stressed then that reserves are replenished: every year new fields move from exploration to development. The company’s and the country’s periods are derived on different bases and at different production, so they should not be compared directly.
What it means: KMG’s reserves are 785 million tonnes, confirmed by the state commission; “more than 45 years” is the company’s estimate at current production allowing for replenishment through exploration, not a nationwide indicator.
Background: “Recoverable reserves” are the part of oil in the subsoil that can be produced with existing technology and under existing conditions; geological reserves are everything estimated in the subsoil. On the same day, 4 November, energy minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov kept the nationwide oil production plan for 2026 at 96 million tonnes; for scale, KMG named its own production at 26 million tonnes.
We have also reported on oil production and the fourth refinery and on Tengizchevroil’s nine-month output.
