A planned expansion of the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan would add 12 million metric tons of crude production a year by 2016, Chevron Corp. (CVX) Vice President Ian MacDonald said Thursday.

The decision whether to expand the Tengiz field may be taken in 2011, MacDonald said at a conference in Paris , adding that production at Tengiz could reach 800,000 barrels a day by 2016.

Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev has given a "very clear assurance" that deals in the former Soviet Union country will be honored, MacDonald said.

"We don't expect any changes to the terms," he said.

Chevron isn't pursuing liquefied-natural-gas projects in Russia 's Yamal Peninsula , but the company is in talks with Russian pipeline operator OAO Transneft (TRNFP.RS) on participating in the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean , MacDonald said. If built, Chevron would also send oil through the Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline, he said.

In Poland , Chevron plans to drill its first shale-gas well in the country in 2011.

"It'll probably take 10 years to reach commercial production," he said. The main reason is that there is no established drilling industry in Eastern Europe , whereas in the U.S. the industry is developed and the shale-gas revolution happened at a very fast pace.

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