Fire at Tengiz on January 18, 2026. Screenshot from video
The company's statement indicated that production was temporarily suspended for safety reasons due to issues with certain electricity distribution systems. TCO noted that this decision was made to prevent further risks.
According to information from the state company "KazMunayGas," on January 18, a transformer fire occurred on turbine GT-9.3 at GTE-4, after which the transformer on GT-9.5 also caught fire. Both incidents were successfully extinguished, and fortunately, there were no injuries. An investigation into the causes of these events is currently underway.
Tengiz is the largest oil and gas field in the country, located in the Atyrau region, approximately 350 km southeast of the city of Atyrau. The Korolev field is situated just 20 km northeast of Tengiz. Both fields are developed by Tengizchevroil, which has the following shareholder structure: 50% owned by Chevron, 25% by Exxon Mobil, 20% by KazMunayGas, a subsidiary of Samruk-Kazyna, and 5% by the Russian company Lukoil.
The oil reserves at the Tengiz and Korolev fields amount to 1.4 billion tons, equivalent to 11.5 billion barrels. The majority of Tengizchevroil's production is exported via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC); however, in light of damage to the marine terminal infrastructure in Southern Ozerievka (near Novorossiysk), some oil is now directed to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline.
