Kazakhstan says oil output at Tengiz oilfield resumed

By Ksenia Orlova and Felix Light

ALMATY/MOSCOW, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Oil output at Kazakhstan's huge Tengiz oilfield has been restored with five of its wells operating again so far, the energy ministry said on Saturday.

"Production volumes will be increased in stages, as the system parameters stabilise and full process safety is ensured," the ministry said.

Production data at the field, Kazakhstan's biggest, has not been available since the outage.

Kazakhstan said on Wednesday it was restarting the Tengiz oilfield in stages, aiming to reach full production in a week after three unexplained electrical fires earlier this month cost it 7.2 million barrels of oil.

Sources told Reuters this week that Tengiz is likely to have restored less than half of its normal production by February 7 as it slowly recovers from the fires.

Kazakhstan's oil sector, which accounts for around 2% of daily global supply, has been hit by a series of setbacks in recent months. The outage at Tengiz has been compounded by the fallout from drone strikes on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which carries the bulk of Kazakh oil exports out of the country via Russia.

Tengiz is operated by Tengizchevroil, a joint venture between Chevron CVX.N, Exxon Mobil XOM.N, KazMunayGas KMGZ.KZ and Lukoil LKOH.MM. Chevron owns 50%, Exxon Mobil 25%, Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas 20% and Russia's Lukoil 5%.

This week, senior Kazakh officials held meetings with both Chevron and Exxon Mobil on the situation at Tengiz, urging the U.S. oil majors to expedite repair work at the field, and ensure its future safety and reliability.