Kazakhstan says vast Tengiz field to resume output soon, but scale uncertain

By Tamara Vaal, Felix Light and Vladimir Soldatkin

ASTANA/ALMATY/MOSCOW, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is poised to resume production from its biggest oil field, the energy ministry said on Monday, but industry sources said volumes were still low and a force majeure on CPC Blend exports was still in place.

The world's number 12 oil producer has been recently plagued by several incidents, including drone attacks on a crucial exporting facility and a fire and power outage at Kazakhstan's largest oilfield, Tengiz, which hurt its output and exports.

Tengizchevroil, led by Chevron CVX.N, had temporarily halted production at the Tengiz and Korolev oilfields on January 18.

Chevron said on Monday that the company has restarted oil production, without naming the field.

POWER SUPPLY RESTORED TO OIL FIELDS

"Tengizchevroil (TCO) confirms safe commencement of the site power distribution system and the resumption of initial crude oil production," a Chevron spokesperson said on Monday.

Separately, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said on Monday that Tengiz was preparing to resume oil output soon, and that production at the Korolev oilfield was already in operation.

"The safe start-up of the power supply system has now been confirmed, and the Tengiz field will be brought back online in the near future," the ministry said.

However, at least two industry sources expressed their scepticism about the scale of the initial oil production, noting that TCO has yet to lift a force majeure on CPC Blend supplies issued after the field's shutdown.

Chevron said it does not comment on specific details of its operations.

One source said that the fields now produced only around 8,000 metric tons per day, an equivalent of about 60,000 barrels per day, only about 6% of its usual levels.

JPMorgan said on Friday that Tengiz might remain offline for the rest of the month, and estimated Kazakhstan's January crude was likely to average between 1 million and 1.1 million barrels per day, compared with a usual level of around 1.8 million bpd.

KAZAKHSTAN'S GOVERNMENT MEETS EXXON

Kazakhstan's government said earlier on Monday that Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov had met ExxonMobil XOM.N Vice President Peter Larden and urged the U.S. energy company to accelerate work to deal with the outage and prevent similar incidents in future.

With a 25% stake, ExxonMobil is the second-largest shareholder in the TCO consortium behind Chevron, which holds 50%. Kazakhstan's KazMunayGaz has 20%, and Russia's Lukoil 5% of the group.

CASPIAN PIPELINE CONSORTIUM RESUMES SPM-3 OPERATIONS

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which operates Kazakhstan's main exporting pipeline said on Sunday that it returned to full loading capacity at its terminal on the Russian Black Sea coast after maintenance was completed at one of its three mooring points, known as SPMs.

An industry source said that the crude oil tanker Paschalis DD is scheduled to dock at the terminal for loadings from the repaired SPM-3 on Monday at 2 p.m. (1100 GMT).

Oil exports via the CPC dropped by 24% in December from the previous month, according to an industry source, to 3.98 million metric tons, or around 1.02 million barrels per day.