In its press release, TCO confirmed the successful launch of the power distribution system and the initial stages of resuming production. The production volumes will gradually increase depending on the situation at the field.
This information was announced shortly after Prime Minister Olzhas Bektanov met with Peter Larden, Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil, one of the shareholders of Tengizchevroil. During the discussion, the parties addressed issues of cooperation in the oil and gas sector and joint projects, and the Prime Minister expressed concern about the situation at Tengiz, emphasizing the need for prompt resolution of the aftermath of the accident, as reported by the government press service on January 26.
Recall that on January 18, a fire occurred on two transformers at the GTES-4 substation. The fire was successfully localized, and personnel were evacuated. There is currently no official information on the causes of the incident. The next day, TCO announced the suspension of production at the Tengiz and Korolev fields due to power supply issues.
The Tengiz field, located in the Atyrau region, is the largest in Kazakhstan and is situated 350 km southeast of the city of Atyrau. The Korolev field is located just 20 km northeast of Tengiz. Both fields are operated by Tengizchevroil, in which 50% of the shares belong to Chevron, 25% to ExxonMobil, 20% to KazMunayGas, and 5% to the Russian Lukoil.
The main volumes of oil produced by Tengizchevroil are exported through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC). However, due to damage to the infrastructure of the marine terminal in Southern Ozerievka, which occurred after a drone attack at the end of November last year, part of the production was redirected to alternative routes. The attack damaged the offshore mooring facility VPU-2, coinciding with the timing of repairs to the third facility, which in turn led to a decrease in the export volumes of Kazakh oil.
Currently, the CPC has completed repairs on VPU-3, which lasted from mid-November, and is now loading oil from two of the three offshore mooring facilities.
