Blackout suspends all Tengiz plants

A blackout had stopped all the plants at Tengiz field in Atyrau oblast in western Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the public relations adviser of TengizChevrOil Yerlan Kassym. "The partial failure in power supply to production facilities of Tengiz on January 3 was caused by problems at one of the energy-generating turbines and a failure in the KEGOC system. As a result, operations at the raw gas pumping unit and the second-generation plant was suspended for technological safety purposes," Kassym said. The energy supply have been resumed and the turbine was safely restarted. The production regime is being restored. There is no information on the time required for full restoration. Tengiz field is an oil and gas field located in northwestern Kazakhstan's low-lying wetlands along the northeast shores of the Caspian Sea. Discovered in 1979, Tengiz oil field is one of the largest discoveries in recent history. The city of Atyrau, 350 km north of Tengiz, is the main transport hub of Tengiz oil. Many nations are involved in a large geopolitical competition to secure access to this source of oil. Tengiz is operated by Tengizchevroil, a 40 year partnership planning to produce billions of barrels of oil from the field. The Tengizchevroil (TCO) consortium has developed the Tengiz field since its founding in April 1993. The partners in Tengizchevroil are Chevron (50%), Exxon Mobil (25%), the Kazakhstan government through Kazakhstan Petroleum (20%) and Lukoil (5%).