Since the cessation of production, sources claim that the pause may last until the end of the current week; however, there is a possibility that it could extend even longer—until February. The operator of the field, Tengizchevroil, has already canceled the shipment of five batches of CPC Blend oil, totaling about 600-700 thousand tons, which were planned to be sent in January and February from the Black Sea terminal of the CPC.
At the moment, the shutdown at Tengiz has not affected the overall oil production in Kazakhstan, as other major fields, such as Kashagan and Karachaganak, have begun to increase their production volumes. However, as one informant warns, if the shutdown at Tengiz drags on, CPC may start reducing pumping within a few days.
A fire at two transformers at the GTES-4 substation in Tengiz broke out on January 18 and was successfully extinguished, with personnel evacuated. Information regarding the causes of the incident is currently unavailable. The next day, Tengizchevroil announced a temporary suspension of oil production at the Tengiz and Korolevskoye fields due to power supply issues.
Tengiz is the largest oil and gas field in Kazakhstan, located in the Atyrau region, approximately 350 km southeast of the city of Atyrau. The Korolevskoye field is located 20 km northeast of Tengiz. Both fields are operated by Tengizchevroil, which is 50% owned by Chevron, 25% by Exxon Mobil, 20% by KazMunayGas (a structure of Samruk-Kazyna), and 5% by the Russian company Lukoil.
The majority of the oil produced by Tengizchevroil is exported through the CPC system; however, due to damage to the infrastructure of the marine terminal in South Ozerievka (near Novorossiysk), part of the crude is currently being redirected to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and to supplies to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline.
