MOSCOW, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Oil production at Kazakhstan’s vast Tengiz oilfield, one of the world’s largest, could be halted for another 7-10 days after shutting down on Sunday, cutting crude exports via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, three industry sources told Reuters.
Operator Tengizchevroil (TCO) said on Monday that production at the Tengiz and Korolevskoye fields had been stopped because of power supply problems.
A day earlier, on January 18, a fire broke out at two turbine transformers at the field’s GTES-4 power station, said Kazakhstan’s state-owned national oil and gas company, KazMunayGas.
“TCO’s output is down until the end of the week, but this could last until February,” one source said.
Three sources added that TCO had already cancelled five export cargoes of CPC Blend crude, totalling about 600,000 to 700,000 metric tons, scheduled to be shipped from the CPC’s Black Sea terminal in January and February.
Chevron, TCO’s largest shareholder, confirmed that “as a precautionary measure, TCO has temporarily shut in production at its Tengiz and Korolev oilfields”. The company declined to comment on operational details and financial matters. The sources were speaking on condition of anonymity.
TCO’s press service confirmed to Reuters on Tuesday that, “as a precautionary measure”, production at Tengiz and Korolevskoye has been suspended temporarily. It did not specify the cause of the fire at the production facilities or the date when production would resume.
OTHER PRODUCERS RAISING OUTPUT, SOURCE SAYS
The fall in Tengiz oil output has not yet affected Kazakhstan’s overall production because other producers increased extraction, said one of the sources familiar with the data.
Kazakhstan’s crude production in the first 12 days of January was down 35% from average daily output in December owing to restrictions on CPC exports.
However, in the following days, output began to grow rapidly at vast Caspian fields Kashagan and Karachaganak, the source said.
Kashagan’s average daily oil production over January 1-19 was 197,000 barrels, up 28% from average daily output for the first 12 days of the month. Karachaganak’s output for January 1-19 averaged 156,000 barrels per day, 21% more than the average for the earlier period, according to Reuters calculations based on data provided by the source.
Average oil output at Tengiz for January 1-19 was 360,000 bpd, 6% more than the average for January 1-12, the source said, citing the daily operational statistics.
The press services of the two fields’ operators, Karachaganak Petroleum Operating and NCOC, did not respond to requests for comment.
“NCOC and KPO are partially offsetting the Tengiz shutdown, but in a few days CPC will begin to reduce throughput,” the source said.
Kazakhstan exports most of its oil via CPC, but damage to infrastructure at the marine terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka has forced the redirection of some crude to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline.
In addition to U.S. company Chevron, which holds 50% of TCO, other project partners include ExxonMobil with 25%, KazMunayGas with 20% and Lukoil with 5%.
(Reuters reporters in MOSCOWAdditional reporting by Robert Harvey in LondonEditing by Guy Faulconbridge, Jan Harvey and David Goodman)
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