Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Chief Executive Rex Tillerson on Tuesday criticized the Kazakh government for meddling with the country's big and long-delayed Kashagan oil project.
Tillerson, speaking to reporters at an oil conference here, said the government should resist interfering when the consortium hits technical challenges which have plagued Kashagan for years.
"Stop delaying the project, be supportive, work with the consortium and see the project through to a successful start up," Tillerson said about the Kazakh government. " Kashagan will start up when Kashagan starts up."
Tillerson said the consortium has invested $17 billion in Kasahagan over the past several years without producing a barrel of oil.
"Hopefully we are coming to the point where the government of Kazakhstan won't take actions that can delay (the project)," he said. The Kashagan consortium, which includes Eni SpA (E), said in recent days the oil project startup wouldn't be until 2013.
Tillerson said the Iraq government was following a "sensible" path devising a handful of short-term technical service contracts to jump-start the country's oil pumping capacity to 3 million barrels, but he said the company wouldn't yet put any Exxon staff on the ground because of the violence.
"I am very hopeful for Iraq and glad to see that they are in a position to get started," Tillerson said, declining to speculate as to when Exxon and other big Western oil companies might sign the service deals that are expected to boost Iraq's pumping capacity by 500,000 barrels a day.