Kazakhstan may strike separate deal with OPEC on oil output curbs

(Writes through with comments on OPEC discussions)

By Mariya Gordeyeva

ASTANA, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is aiming for a standalone deal with leading global oil producers on restraining its crude production due to a need to crank up output at its Kashagan field, a Kazakh official said on Thursday.

The Central Asian nation increased oil and gas condensate output by 9.9 percent in January-July to 49.907 million tonnes, or 1.724 million barrels per day (bpd), exceeding its quota of 1.7 million bpd under a global supply pact.

Kazakhstan has said it needs to adjust the terms of the deal as it expects to boost output later this year thanks to the giant Kashagan field.

On Thursday, Deputy Energy Minister Aset Magauov said his country needed to repay the shareholders in Kashagan, where output had been delayed for years before it was relaunched last year.

"I think that talks on Kazakhstan's commitments will continue separately," Magauov told reporters.

"There is understanding from OPEC that the project (Kashagan) is very large, there have been huge investments and there is a need to return these investments to shareholders."

He said Kashagan, with investments of around $55 billion, was expected to produce 13 million tonnes next year (260,000 bpd), while other oil projects in the country could see their output reduced.

Kashagan has been developed by a consortium of China National Petroleum Corp, Exxon Mobil (Swiss: XOM-USD.SW - news) , Eni (Euronext: ENI.NX - news) , Royal Dutch Shell (LSE: 0LN9.L - news) , Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) , Inpex and KazMunaiGas.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers, including Russia and Kazakhstan, agreed to cut output from January this year until the end of March 2018 to reduce global inventories and support oil prices. (Reporting by Mariya Gordeyeva; Writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Dale Hudson and Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber)