Kazakh-Focused Nostrum Slashes Output in 2019

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas produced 28,587 barrels of oil equivalent/day of oil and gas in 2019, the company said in a January 28 statement. This is down from 31,254 boe/day the year before and the London-listed operator of the Chinarevskoye field in western Kazakhstan has predicted a further decline in output to 20,000 boe/day in 2020.

Nostrum last week announced it would halt all drilling because of well productivity issues, “whilst it carries out further analysis to identify viable technologies to mitigate subsurface risk.” 

Nostrum reported average sales of 26,617 boe/day for 2019, including 13,693 boe/day of dry gas. It expects 23,832 boe/day of hydrocarbons to be available for sale this month.

The company is scheduled to release its 2019 financial report on March 31. It said on January 28 it expected revenues from the year to exceed $322mn, down from $390mn in 2018. Its net debt as of the end of 2019 is projected to total up to $1.14bn.

Nostrum’s subsurface problems prompted management to initiate a strategic review of its business last year. This might lead to the whole or partial sale of the company, but a buyer has not yet been found.