Operations of Western oil majors abroad have for the first time been disrupted by a Ukrainian military strike on Russian energy infrastructure, with Chevron and Shell announcing on October 21 a scaling back of output at one of Kazakhstan’s largest oil and gas fields, Karachaganak.

Raw gas from the field in northwestern Kazakhstan is piped across the border to Russia’s Orenburg plant for processing, but on October 20, Kazakhstan was forced to halt the flow after the facility, one of the largest in the world, was damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack.

Subsequently, on October 21, Kazakhstan’s energy minister Erlan Akkenzhenov said that production at Karachaganak, specifically an oil and gas condensate resource, had been reduced by between 8,500 and 9,000 tonnes per day, equivalent to roughly 66,800 barrels. 

Akkenzhenov has expressed the hope that production restrictions would be lifted within three days, according to Reuters. Speaking in Astana, Akkenzhenov acknowledged that the suspension of Kazakh gas deliveries to the Orenburg facility would have “a certain economic impact,” though he stressed that domestic fuel supplies would remain unaffected, Reuters’ report added.

The news agency cited industry sources as saying that output at the field on October 20 declined to between 25,000 and 28,000 tonnes per day, down from a typical 35,000–35,500 tonnes.
Upstream reported earlier, citing Karachaganak operating data for 2024, that Karachaganak produces around 275 cubic metres of associated gas for every barrel of hydrocarbons it produces. As such, Karachaganak condensate output stood at 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year, leading to the production of 24.1bn cubic metres (bcm), though 14.2 bcm of the gas was reinjected into the reservoir due to the lack of processing facilities, the trade journal noted.

The Karachaganak project is run by an international consortium, Karachaganak Petroleum Operating (KPO), comprising Chevron with an 18% stake, Shell and Eni with 29.25% each, Russia’s Lukoil with 13.5% and Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGaz holding the remaining 10%. 

KPO reported it sent about 8.7 bcm across the Kazakh-Russian border to Orenburg for processing in 2024, Upstream's report said. That delivered the equivalent of roughly 23.8mn cubic metres (mcm) of raw gas per day to the Russian plant.

The disruption comes as the Kazakh government attempts to stabilise domestic energy prices, having imposed temporary controls on fuel and utility tariffs last week to curb inflation, which reached 12.9% in September amid continuing fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine's military confirmed the strike on the Orenburg plant as well as a drone attack on an oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region as part of a campaign intensified since August that targets refineries and energy assets to disrupt petrol supplies and reduce Russian revenues that can be directed into the Kremlin’s war effort.

In February, a separate Ukrainian drone strike on a pumping station serving the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) briefly halted oil loadings at Russia’s Novorossiysk port.