Kazakhstan loses almost 1 mln t of oil output due to Tengiz, Korolevskoye field shutdowns

ASTANA. Jan 28 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan lost almost 1 million tonnes of oil output as a result of production shutdowns at the Tengiz and Korolevskoye fields, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"If we're talking about volume, then about 900,000 tonnes so far," Akkenzhenov said when asked how much output had been lost due to the Tengiz shutdown.

The minister also said that he "met with the management of Chevron and [Tengiz operator] TCO," and they "promise to make up this amount."

"Therefore, in the annual equivalent we believe that the country will not lose anything," Akkenzhenov said.

Earlier reports said a transformer caught fire at the Tengiz field on January 18. The fire was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported, while media said operations initially continued as normal. On January 19, Tengizchevroil announced it had temporarily halted production at the Tengiz and Korolev fields due to power supply problems.

The Energy Ministry established a special commission to investigate the suspension of oil production at the Tengiz field following power supply failure. The commission included representatives of the regional department of the State Power Supervision and Control Committee, the energy department of the Atyrau regional administration, power grid operator KEGOC, and Tengizchevroil.

The Tengiz field was discovered in 1979 and now is one of the world's deepest producing super giant fields. Estimated oil in place in the Tengiz field is 3.1 billion metric tonnes. The field is developed by Tengizchevroil JV (TCO), which is owned by Chevron Corp. (50%), ExxonMobil Kazakhstan Ventures Inc. (25%), Kazakhstan through National Company KazMunayGas (20%) and Lukoil (5%). The company has been operating in Kazakhstan since 1993.