MOSCOW/ASTANA: Kazakhstan said on Thursday it had reduced oil production after suspected Ukrainian drone attacks forced its main export terminal on the Black Sea to close, with one source saying its biggest field had slashed output by more than half.
Disruption to the route, which handles around 2 percent of the world’s daily crude supply, adds to pressure on an oil market already grappling with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and threats to Saudi Arabian exports via the Red Sea.
Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said oil companies had reduced output due to export constraints, saying that Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline loading operations had been suspended for safety reasons.
“Due to restrictions on crude oil intake into the pipeline system and in order to prevent storage tank congestion at oil-producing companies, a controlled adjustment of daily production levels was implemented resulting in a temporary reduction in oil output,” it said in emailed comments.
The ministry did not specify the scale of the production reductions.
