Due to the suspension of production, sources claim that it may last until the end of this week or 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 scheduled to be sent from the Black Sea terminal of CPC in January and February.
Despite the temporary halt at Tengiz, overall oil production in Kazakhstan has not been affected, as other major fields, such as Kashagan and Karachaganak, have increased their output. However, according to one source, if the downtime at Tengiz continues, CPC may start reducing pumping in the coming days.
On January 18, a fire occurred at the GTES-4 substation in Tengiz involving two transformers. The fire was quickly extinguished, and personnel were evacuated. Information regarding the causes of the incident is currently unavailable. The next day, Tengizchevroil announced the suspension of oil production at the Tengiz and Korolev fields "due to power supply issues."
Tengiz is Kazakhstan's largest oil and gas field, located in the Atyrau region, approximately 350 km southeast of the city of Atyrau. The Korolev field is located 20 km northeast of Tengiz and is also operated by Tengizchevroil. This company has the following ownership shares: 50% belongs to Chevron, 25% to Exxon Mobil, 20% to KazMunayGas (a subsidiary of Samruk-Kazyna), and 5% to the Russian 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 Southern Ozerievka (near Novorossiysk), some of the crude is currently being redirected to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline.
