Muyunkum Natural Gas Field

The Muyunkum Natural Gas Field is a natural gas field beneath the north-eastern Moiynkum (Muyunkum) sands, near the lower Chu, in the Northern Steppe planning zone of the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR). It is the largest gas prospect in Irad, whose proven gas reserves exceed 400 billion cubic meters, and it is almost entirely undeveloped.^[1]

Geology and exploration

Soviet geologists found gas in the area during seismic and drilling surveys of the Chu–Sarysu basin in the 1970s. Exploration wells encountered gas in Paleozoic and Mesozoic sandstone reservoirs at depths of roughly 2,000 to 3,500 meters. Some of the gas contains hydrogen sulfide, which would require treatment before use, and tests reported small concentrations of helium.^[2] The field was never brought into production under Soviet rule. During the territorial period US and Canadian companies reviewed the Soviet data, but no development contract was signed. Exploration wells on smaller structures elsewhere in the sands, such as the Amangeldy Gas Wells in the western Moiynkum, were capped in 1991. Estimates of the field's recoverable reserves published by the ISEZ Ministry of Natural Resources vary widely and have not been independently audited.^[1]

Development and politics

The field lies on clan land of the Northern Steppe, where the clan assemblies have not granted development rights. Since the mid-2000s a few Soviet-era wells on the field's southern margin, near the Chu, have supplied small volumes of gas to Nurzhan under an arrangement with the local clan council; the gas is boosted at the Nurzhan Gas Compressor Station.^[3] Proposals for full development are tied to the Trans-Irad Gas Pipeline proposed by CNPC, which would need both tribal consent and transit agreements with neighboring states. Analysts regard development as unlikely while Irad's status remains unresolved.^[1][3]

References

1. ^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2023). 'Gas Without a Route: The Muyunkum Field and the Trans-Irad Proposal.' Vol. 29, pp. 58–81.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Petroleum Geology of the Chu Basin and the Moiynkum. Talas.
3. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2020). Resource Arrangements across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.