Kashagan Oil Field Problems
The following from a WSJ/DJ Newswire piece Feb 2007:
Eni confirmed that its most important exploration project, the Kashagan field in the Caspian Sea with proven reserves of more than 13 billion barrels, won't begin pumping until the second half of 2010, a full two years later than had previously been disclosed.
That is the latest in a series of setbacks at Kashagan, where Eni had initially expected to start pumping oil in 2005.
In addition, the price tag for the project keeps climbing. Though the company didn't disclose exactly how far over budget the project had come, its effect can be seen in Eni's overall capital expenditure plan, which has shot up to EUR44.6 billion for the 2007-2010 period, a 27% hike over the amount it had forecast to spend during the 2006-2009 period.
Still, Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni was upbeat about Kashagan, saying that the company was now confident that the reserves would be greater than previously estimated, and that production would plateau at 1.5 million barrels a day in 2019, instead of its previous estimate of a 1.2 million barrel per day plateau in 2016.