BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 16
By Nargiz Sadikhova – Trend:
Kazakhstan has extracted 7 million tons of crude oil and condensate in January 2021, which is 1.7 percent less than the plan, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Energy Nurlan Nogayev said, Trend reports citing the press office of Kazakhstan’s government.
The Tengizchevroil (TCO) project produced 2 million tons of oil, which is 4.2 percent less than the plan. The non-fulfillment of the plan was due to difficult meteorological conditions observed in the region in January: fog, rain, humidity, ice.
“Such weather conditions have caused voltage sparks in high voltage switching devices in electrical networks. As a result, emergency shutdowns occurred at the facilities of Tengizchevroil and Atyrau Oil Refinery. Power disruptions resulted in the shutdown of the second generation plant and a partial reduction in production of the sour gas re-injection plant's integrated process chain,” the minister explained.
He noted that due to these events, the leadership of the Committee for Atomic and Energy Supervision and Control of the Ministry is conducting an investigation with the involvement of interested parties.
The production volume at the North Caspian project – Kashagan was 1.23 million tons, which meets the January plan. The production volume at the Karachaganak field amounted to 1.1 million tons, which is 1 percent above the month's plan.
Furthermore, some 5.5 million tons of oil were exported in January, which meets plan for the month. Also, 4.7 billion cubic meters of gas were extracted during the reporting month, which is 2.3 percent less than the plan.
The decrease in gas production was due to a power failure at the Tengiz field, which in turn led to a decrease in associated gas production. The volume of domestic consumption of commercial gas amounted to 2.5 billion cubic meters, which is 12.4 percent more than the January plan.
The volume of liquefied gas production amounted to 280,000 tons, which is 2.6 percent more than the plan. The volume of exported gas amounted to 736 million cubic meters, which is 19.3 percent more than the plan for the reporting period.
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