Kazakhstan’s largest field halves production in the midst of an energy crisis
Kazakhstan's offshore oilfield Kashagan has cut its production of nearly half since early May due to maintenance, sources told Reuters Tuesday.
Maintenance began on May 19th and will continue for months, until August 3rd. Production at the gigantic Kashagan field will completely stop in June due to the same maintenance.
The share of Kazakhstan oil production allocated by the OPEC + group for May is 1.638 million barrels per day (bpd). By June, it will be raised to 1,655, but Kazakhstan has produced more than its quota.
Due to the maintenance, however, Kazakhstan's actual production fell on May 22 to 1.66 million bpd, from around 1.85 million bpd the previous month.
The field consortium is made up of CNPC, Eni, ExxonMobil, Inpex, KazMunayGaz, Shell and Total.
The loss of production comes at a time when all eyes are on OPEC and non-OPEC members of the group formed to keep the oil market in balance, known as OPEC +.
Kazakhstan experienced another interruption in oil production in March and April of this year, when the pipeline that the country uses to export most of its oil was rendered largely inoperable due to damage from a storm. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium said two of the three tanker loading facilities were not operational. The pipeline returned to full capacity only after a month, until the week of April 26.
The restoration of the CPC has been slow as the parts needed for the repair have been disrupted by sanctions against Russia.
Kazakhstan sends more than two-thirds of its oil to Europe through the CPC pipeline.
Earlier this week, Kazakhstan said it expects to produce between 90 and 93 million tons of oil in 2023, up from 87.5 million tons annually this year, depending on the expansion of the oil field. Tengiz, which may be delayed. Now this new stop, in a delicate moment, could lead to the failure to reach production forecasts, all in a very delicate moment for the energy markets.
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new articles of Economic Scenarios.
The article Kazakhstan, the largest field halves production, in the midst of an energy crisis comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/kazakistan-il-piu-grande-giacimento-dimezza-la-produzione-nel-mezzo-di-una-crisi-energetica/ on Wed, 25 May 2022 12:00:28 +0000.