Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 4 -- Kazakhstan's Kashagan oil field, long the subject of uncertainty over a start-up date, will begin producing crude in 2014 instead of in 2013, according to the head of a Kazakh energy association.

Timur Kulibayev, chairman of KazEnergy—an association of major oil and gas companies in Kazakhstan—told reporters at a conference that it would be "impossible" to launch Kashagan's oil production by the planned date.

Kulibayev, who also is a son-in-law of Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said severe winter weather conditions would prevent the start-up envisioned by the Agip Kazakhstan North Caspian Operating Co. (Agip KCO).

Kulibayev's remarks contradicted a statement by Kairgeldy Kabyldin, chief executive of state-owned KazMunaiGas, a consortium member, that production was expected to begin in October 2013, according to a memorandum signed in June by the government of Kazakhstan and the Agip KCO consortium.