Kazakhstan Launches Probe Into Tengiz Oilfield Shutdown

Kazakhstan has set up a special commission to investigate an incident that forced the temporary shutdown of the Tengiz oilfield.

The commission includes representatives of Tengizchevroil, the operator of the supergiant field, as well as officials from regional and national government agencies. Tengizchevroil is run by a consortium led by U.S. oil major Chevron, which holds a 50 percent stake, The Caspian Post reports via Oilprice.com.

The Tengiz oilfield was taken offline over the weekend after fires damaged a critical power generation and distribution facility. As a result, both production and exports were halted due to disruptions to the power systems serving Tengiz and the nearby Korolev oilfield.

The officials said that two fires broke out on January 18 at transformers supplying different generation units at the GTES-4 power plant, which provides electricity to oil and gas processing facilities at Tengiz. The fires were quickly extinguished, and the field and surrounding infrastructure were declared safe and secure.

Before the shutdown, Tengiz was producing around 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Industry sources said that the field is expected to remain offline for at least seven to ten more days.

The disruption at one of Kazakhstan’s largest oil assets helped push Brent crude oil prices above $65 per barrel this week, highlighting the field’s importance to global supply.

Crude from Tengiz is exported via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which transports oil from northwest Kazakhstan to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The CPC pipeline handles most of Kazakhstan’s crude exports, including oil from the country’s three major fields-Tengiz, Kashagan oilfield, and Karachaganak oilfield-where international energy companies such as ExxonMobil, Shell, and Eni also hold stakes.

The findings of the commission are expected to determine the causes of the incident and outline measures to prevent similar disruptions at Kazakhstan’s strategic energy assets.