(Dec 11): Recent attacks on the the key export terminal for Kazakh crude have wiped out more than a tenth of the country’s daily oil output.
Combined production losses since Nov 29, when the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) shipping infrastructure on Russia’s Black Sea coast was damaged by Ukrainian attacks, amount to 480,000 tonnes, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told reporters in Astana, according to Interfax.
That’s equivalent to about 270,000 barrels a day, Bloomberg calculations show. In the first nine months of this year, Kazakhstan pumped 75.7 million tonnes of crude and condensate, or just over two million barrels a day, according to official data.
The losses are not irreparable and the nation’s production will catch up once the normal operations resume, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said in a separate statement. Despite the current production losses, Kazakhstan still expects to meet its full-year output plan, Interfax cited the minister as saying. Earlier this year, officials from the country said the 2025 output target was 97 million tonnes.
The CPC pipeline is the main export route for Kazakhstan’s key oil fields. Normally its Black Sea terminal loads crude oil from two moorings, with a third one acting as a backup. The attack last month significantly damaged one mooring just as another was undergoing planned maintenance, leaving just one jetty available to load crude.
Originally, the CPC operator planned to return the second mooring from maintenance within two months. Akkenzhenov confirmed that it will resume operations by Dec 15, according to Interfax.
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Kazakhstan has no real alternative for the CPC route, although the nation is working to develop other shipment options, Akkenzhenov said.
The nation’s producers continue to ship crude oil via the Russian ports of Novorossiysk and Ust-Luga as planned, according to the energy ministry.
State-run oil pipeline operator KazTransOil will send more oil via alternative export routes amid the CPC repairs and will provide producers with temporary crude storage, the company said this week. In December, KazTransOil plans to raise shipments by 232,000 tonnes for the Atyrau-Samara pipeline across Russia, by 58,000 tonnes via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route, and by 72,000 tonnes via the pipeline network to China.
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The nation is yet to set a 2026 oil output target, but it’s likely to be lower than this year because of major maintenance works, Akkenzhenov added.
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