Oil Chronicles
Oil Chronicles.August 2022
August
August 3, a ministerial meeting of the countries participating in the OPEC+ agreement was held in a videoconference format. Kazakhstan was represented at the meeting by Minister of Energy Bolat Akchulakov.
The meeting discussed the fulfillment by the countries of their obligations under the Agreement on Limiting Oil Production in June. As a result, it was decided to continue increasing the current level of production by OPEC+ countries in September by 0.1 million barrels per day. Kazakhstan's obligations for September will amount to 1.710 mln barrels per day.
August 3, due to the detection of signs of a gas leak on the territory of the production site, the Bolashak integrated oil and gas treatment plant was safely stopped, NCOC, the operator of the North Caspian project, said. According to the standard procedure, pressure release was carried out on the flare system after the operation of the gas sensors at the production facilities.
The incident did not cause any harm to people's health, the report says. No exceedance of the maximum permissible concentrations of pollutants was registered at the air quality monitoring stations in Western Esken. Work has begun on the resumption of production operations.
CPC has significantly reduced the volume of oil pumping through the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline due to repairs at the Tengiz field and the shutdown of production at Kashagan.
"In connection with the repair at the Tengiz field of the Republic of Kazakhstan at the head section of the CPC pipeline system (Tengiz pump station), oil intake from the field is reduced. Also, due to the shutdown of oil production at the Kashagan field, the volumes of oil intake into the CPC pipeline system have been reduced. These factors led to a significant decrease in the total volume of oil pumping through the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system," the consortium said in a statement.
According to Argus, in the first half of this year, the total railway exports of Kazakhstan fuel oil to the Russian ports of Novorossiysk, Taganrog, Azov, and the Caucasus decreased to 54.5 thous. tons from 194.7 thous. tons a year earlier. Shipments of fuel oil from Kazakhstan via Taman, after slightly decreasing in March, in the second quarter were stabilized at 72-102 thous. tons per month.
Kazakhstan's fuel oil was redirected through Georgian ports – terminals in Batumi and Poti, both of which ensured the shipment of up to 43% of all export volumes. Trading companies intend to continue the supply of fuel oil in this direction, despite high transportation costs and congestion in the port area.
"Since the end of February, Kazakhstani exporters have started redirecting fuel oil shipments going through the Russian ports of the Black and Azov Seas to Batumi and Kulevi. Shipments in this direction reached 462.9 thous. tons in January-June compared to 4.1 thous. tons a year earlier," the company's analysts note.
The operator of the North Caspian project announced the gradual resumption of production on the night of August 9-10. The work is expected to be accompanied by limited flaring at the offshore and onshore complexes within the framework of the relevant permits.
One of the CPC ExxonMobil shareholders said that he sees sanctions risks for the transportation of oil from Kazakhstan through the system of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Interfax reports.
"In the event of the expansion of existing sanctions related to military actions in Ukraine, the introduction of new sanctions, the use of countermeasures by the Russian Federation, or other direct or indirect impacts, there is a possibility that the transportation of oil from Kazakhstan via the CPC pipeline may be interrupted, reduced, temporarily suspended or otherwise restricted. In this case, the corporation may incur losses," the company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission report. ExxonMobil owns 25% of the Tengizchevroil JV and a 16.8% stake in the Kashagan field.
Energy Minister Bolat Akchulakov said during his visit to the Atyrau region that the oil production plan for 2022 has been revised due to problems with the export shipment.