“Oil production in the Caspian region turned to be lower than US state-run Energy Information Agency (EIA) had forecasted,” head of EIA Guy Caruso said to American The Hill newspaper.

«There have been big disappointments in a lot of places. We thought there would be more produced out of Russia than is produced now,” he said.

According to Caruso, EIA’s false forecasts resulted from different factors - “there have been a number of delays to projects.”

Development of Kashagan oil field in the north of the Caspian Sea has again been postponed to 2013. Initially, production in the field was planned to commence in 2008. Last year, Italian company Eni reported that production in the field was postponed to 2010 and expenditures on the project would be far more than expected. The consortium engaged in development of the field is headed by Italian Eni and includes Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, ConocoPhillips, Japan’s Inpex and KazMunayGaz.

According to EIA, oil production in Kazakhstan totalled 1.44mln bpd in 2007. According to recent forecasts by EIA, in 2008, the country will produce 1.49mln bpd and in 2009 – 1.63mln bpd.

EIA reported Azerbaijan produced 0.85mln bpd in 2007 and in 2008 country’s oil production will total 0.96mln bpd, in 2009 – 1.2mln bpd.