Royal
Dutch Shell PLC and its partners are to ask the Kazakh government for an
extension to the 2013 deadline for the first oil from their Kashagan field,
U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports Friday, citing a person at an
unnamed oil company in the city of Atyrau.
According to the paper, the consortium--which also includes Total SA,
ExxonMobil Corp., Eni SpA and Kazakh state firm NC KazMunaiGas--rejected a
plan to meet the deadline by pumping at least 50,000 barrels of oil a day
directly onshore, bypassing an unfinished processing plant on an artificial
island.
As a result, the consortium now has no choice but to ask for an extension, the
newspaper reports, citing the person.
A spokesperson for the North Caspian Operating Co., which operates the project,
said the consortium hadn't altered its plans to meet the 2013 target.