Kazakhstan CPC Oil Exports Struggle After Tengiz Field Shutdown

Kazakhstan's CPC oil exports could remain restricted even as extensive maintenance on its primary oil export route wraps up, sources said on Wednesday, with force majeure declared at the country's largest oilfield, Tengiz, following a fire.

The CPC terminal, which handles about 1.5% of global oil supply and 80% of Kazakhstan's crude exports, has been operating below capacity since mid-November.

Maintenance work on Single Point Mooring-3 (SPM-3) at CPC's Russian Black Sea terminal is in its final stages, CPC said on Wednesday.

SPM-3 could resume loadings as early as Friday, following two months of repairs, according to trading sources. The precise date will be confirmed once underwater works and hydrotests are completed.

However, the shutdown of the Tengiz field, the main source of CPC Blend, may continue to restrict shipments of the grade. Tengizchevroil (TCO), operated by Chevron, issued a force majeure on CPC Blend supplies after the fire and subsequent power outage, the sources said.

Production at Tengiz, which reached 0.9 million barrels per day capacity in 2025, has been halted since Sunday. TCO has also suspended operations at its Korolev field, without providing details on the incident. The company said in its force majeure letter seen by Reuters it cannot estimate when repairs will be completed.

SHARP DROP IN OUTPUT

Three SPMs - floating buoys located about 5 kilometres from the Yuzhnaya Ozereevka CPC terminal near Novorossiysk - are used for offshore tanker loading; usually two are active, with one as a backup.

With SPM-3 undergoing planned maintenance, a drone attack on SPM-2 in late November created a bottleneck in exports and led to a sharp drop in Kazakhstan's oil output.

SPM-2 remains offline after suffering significant damage. CPC is preparing to dismantle and replace the mooring, it said on Wednesday.

CPC oil exports dropped by 24% in December from November, and Kazakhstan's crude production fell by 35% in the first 12 days of January, industry sources said. CPC's 1,500-km pipeline is owned by a consortium including Kazakhstan's Kazmunaygas, Russia's Lukoil, and subsidiaries of Chevron and ExxonMobil.

In December, Kazakhstan redirected 300,000 metric tons of oil away from the CPC.

Separately, unidentified drones recently struck two oil tankers in the Black Sea, including one chartered by Chevron, as they approached the terminal.

(Reuters)