Reuters: Oil production to resume at Kazakhstan's Tengiz field on February 7

Oil production at Kazakhstan's Tengiz field is expected to recover to less than half of normal daily volumes by February 7, informed sources told Reuters.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov says production will be fully restored within a week, by February 4, reports Orda.kz.

According to a Reuters source, production is expected to reach around 260,000 barrels per day by February 5, or about 26% of the daily norm. By February 7, output should reach 46% of normal levels. The further recovery schedule has not yet been disclosed.

Another source told Reuters said production would reach an “acceptable level” within a week but added that Tengiz would struggle to make up for lost export volumes. A third Reuters source stated that by mid-February, production could reach 670,000 barrels per day, still significantly below the 900,000 barrels per day produced at Tengiz early last year after the completion of a major expansion.

JPMorgan estimates that Tengiz production could resume in early February, with Kazakhstan’s total oil output in January reaching 1–1.1 million barrels per day.

Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov, responding to journalists on January 28, said the Ministry of Energy expects full production at the Tengiz field within a week. He also emphasized that production at the Karachaganak field has already been fully restored.

“We restarted Tengiz two days ago, the Karachaganak field. Production is ramping up. You have to understand this is a complex technological process. The field has 30 transformers of different capacities, mostly 110 kV. Three of them burned out — this is critical equipment. We have restored part of their operation, and the field is being brought online step by step. The first gas has appeared. Over the course of the week, Tengiz will be fully operational,” Akkenzhenov said.

Problems in both fields arose after a generator fire on January 18, which caused a power outage. Following this, Tengiz's operator, Tengizchevroil, announced a halt in production.

On January 26, Chevron, which owns 50% of TCO, announced the resumption of production, without specifying which field was affected.

Meanwhile, it was reported that oil from another major field, Kashagan, also developed jointly with foreign investors, was supplied to the domestic market for the first time. This occurred due to export restrictions via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) following last year’s drone attacks on tankers in the Caspian Sea. In January, crude was sent to the Shymkent refinery. According to Akkenzhenov, 3.6 million tons of oil did not reach the CPC.

By Khagan Isayev