Storms in the Black Sea and alerts of potential drone attacks at a key loading terminal are slowing the ramp up of crude oil production at Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz oilfield, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The huge field, capable of producing 950,000 barrels per day, was forced to shut down last month following a fire at the site that damaged critical power supply.
Since then, the field, operated by a Chevron-led consortium, has resumed operations and has been gradually raising production.
However, the pace of the ramp-up has been slowed due to severe storms in the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles most of Kazakhstan’s crude oil exports.
Alerts of potential drone strikes from Ukraine on the energy infrastructure on the Russian Black Sea coast have also disrupted loading schedules and forced the Tengiz field to hold off ramp-ups as storage tanks have filled.
As of February 8, Tengiz had returned 60% of its peak production and was pumping at a rate of 550,000 barrels per day, following the forced shutdown for half of January due to the fire.
The huge oilfield is technically ready to pump to its peak capacity of about 950,000 bpd, one of Reuters’ sources said on Wednesday.
However, the intake of crude into the CPC pipeline system was limited amid delays of loadings at the CPC terminal near Novorossiysk, the source added.
These factors have prevented Tengiz from reaching peak production on February 23, as initially planned.
Overall CPC exports have been disrupted in recent weeks due to Ukrainian drone strikes and severe winter weather.
The Chevron-led field operator Tengizchevroil operates the Tengiz field. Tengizchevroil’s shareholders include Chevron with a 50% stake, ExxonMobil with 25%, Kazakhstan’s state oil and gas firm KazMunayGaz with a 20% interest, and Russian Lukoil with 5%.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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