Kazakhstan has reduced natural gas production from the “Karachaganak“ field after a Ukrainian drone attack this week targeted the Orenburg gas processing plant in Russia, the country's Energy Minister Erlan Akenzhenov announced today.
He specified that the reduction in production is directly related to the consequences of the attack on the Russian gas processing facility.
The crude natural gas (natural gas that is extracted directly from the field and has not yet been processed - ed. note), produced by the “Karachaganak“ project, in which the American “Chevron“ is a shareholder (Chevron) and British-Dutch “Shell“ (Shell), is usually transported for processing at the Orenburg plant.
Ukraine said on Wednesday that it had hit the plant, located about 1,700 kilometers east of the Ukrainian border.
Since oil and natural gas production from the “Karachaganak“ field are closely linked, limiting gas production also leads to a drop in oil production. The Orenburg gas processing plant was also attacked in October last year, Reuters recalls.
“Naturally, we reduced the amount of gas supplied. "However, natural gas supplies to consumers in Kazakhstan have not been interrupted," Akenzhenov said.
According to him, oil and gas condensate production from the field has decreased by about a quarter - to 25,000 tons per day (about 196,500 barrels) compared to the previous 34,000 tons per day.
In 2024, the field produced an average of about 263,000 barrels of oil per day, which were exported through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline system to a Russian terminal on the Black Sea, as well as through the Druzhba oil pipeline through Russia to Germany.
“Karachaganak“ supplies natural gas to Orenburg under a long-term agreement between the field operator (Karachaganak Petroleum Operating - KPO) and the joint venture "KazRosGas", which is valid until 2038.
In addition to "Chevron" and "Shell", the field is operated by a consortium that also includes Italy's "Eni", Russia's "Lukoil", and the Kazakh state company "KazMunayGas" (KazMunayGas).
Kiev said its long-range drone strikes on Russian energy infrastructure were aimed at weakening a key source of funding for Russia's military operations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, claimed that "such attacks on civilian infrastructure are aimed at sowing discord among the population."
Akenzhenov also said that Moscow had not formally requested Kazakhstan for fuel supplies.
Moscow is in talks with Astana to import about 50,000 tons of AI-92 gasoline to make up for a temporary shortage in the domestic market caused by refinery shutdowns and unplanned repairs, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing four sources familiar with the matter.