Kazakhstan Crude Production Dips 6% After Black Sea Drone Attack

By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com,

Following the Ukrainian drone attack that damaged a key export terminal on Russia’s Black Sea at end-November, Kazakhstan’s crude and condensate production has fallen by 6% so far in December compared to the average output in November, an anonymous industry source told Reuters on Monday. 

A Ukrainian attack damaged infrastructure through which the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) exports most of Kazakhstan’s oil near the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea. 

Oil has continued to flow, but at lower rates, while Kazakhstan sought to re-route some exports away from the Black Sea to keep supply relatively steady. 

CPC operates the pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk port, which handles 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude exports from giant oilfields operated by international oil firms. 

Affiliates of Chevron and ExxonMobil are also minority shareholders in CPC, with the Russian Federation as its largest shareholder with a 24% stake.

As a result of the damaged infrastructure at the CPC export terminal, crude and gas condensate output from Kazakhstan dropped by 6% between December 1 and 28, down compared to an average of 1.93 million barrels per day (bpd) in November, according to Reuters’ source.  

Production at the giant Tengiz oilfield on the Caspian Sea, operated by a consortium led by Chevron, has also fallen this month. Output dipped by 10% to 719,800 bpd in the period December 1 through December 28, the source told the publication.

Earlier this month, Kazakhstan said it would reroute some of the oil from at its giant Kashagan oilfield toward China. 

In view of urgent repairs at one of three single-point moorings and deferred loadings, Kazakhstan works on rerouting part of its crude exports, Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry told Reuters nearly three weeks ago. 

Kazakhstan is also diverting more of its westbound exports to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean coast after the attack, multiple industry sources told Reuters in early December.