Delays to raising oil output from Kazakhstan

The Telegraph writes:

Kazakhstan is planning a three-year halt to work on the main phase of the super-giant Kashagan oil field development, as international oil companies Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil fight to convince the country's oil ministry to back a simplified design, which would slash costs by $18bn (£11bn) to $50bn.
...
The Kazakhs are considering shelving the new simplified design, and keeping the field producing at its initial rate of 375,000 barrels per day (bpd) for at least three years, after which the NCOC consortium could use a greater understanding of the geology to produce a better design for the second phase, when production is expected to hit 1.5m bpd. full story

Well, there's another 1m+ barrels per day that's not coming on line when it should have done... Of course, this helps reduce the steepness of the post-peak-oil decline (as this oil will stay in the ground for use later on), but it does bring the start of that decline closer.

Mike