Fire at Tengiz on January 18, 2026. Screenshot from video
Kazakhstan's oil production losses in 2026 due to problems with the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) and the accident at the Tengiz field totaled about 6 million tonnes. Deputy Prime Minister and National Economy Minister Serik Zhumangarin said this at a briefing on October 13, TASS reports.
«The accident at Tengiz at the start of the year, the problems with the CPC — we lost about 6 million tonnes of oil. By 'lost,' I mean we did not produce it. To be precise, it is still in the ground, but it plays no part in the economy,» Zhumangarin explained.
Also on Tuesday, Deputy Energy Minister Yerlan Akbarov said Kazakhstan produced 69.4 million tonnes of oil in January–September 2026. That is 91.7% of the volume in the same period of 2025.
To make up for the shortfall, the authorities postponed scheduled preventive maintenance at the Kashagan and Tengiz fields. Talks are also under way with major subsoil users on measures to boost production. The forecast for all of 2026 is 96 million tonnes of oil, compared with 99.55 million tonnes produced in 2025.
Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry previously said it had revised its 2026 production plans to account for the disruption at Tengiz and attacks on CPC infrastructure.
Although the national economy minister mentioned only one accident at Tengiz, there have been three serious incidents at the field this year. On January 18, transformers at the GTES-4 power plant caught fire, halting production completely for almost a month. On March 11, a fire broke out at a caustic neutralization unit, though production was maintained. Finally, on May 26, another accident occurred at Tengiz, when operator Tengizchevroil reported an operational disruption at the field.
The CPC carries oil from Tengiz and two other major Kazakh fields, Kashagan and Karachaganak, to a marine terminal near Novorossiysk. In 2026, the consortium's Black Sea infrastructure and tankers carrying crude were repeatedly attacked by Ukrainian drones. As a result, oil shipments were suspended, and Kazakhstan had to cut hydrocarbon output.
