The number of cases of Covid-19 at the Tengiz Oil Field in Kazakhstan has now topped 1,000, with 35 new cases reported on Thursday. This pushes the total number of affected people in the region to 1,175; of these, 1,006 work at the Tengiz facility.
The news was reported by Kazinform and is the latest challenge for the facility. In May, the national government considered suspending production at the field as the total cases of Covid-19 hit 935, and with the virus only spreading further throughout the workforce, officials may be forced to shut down the world’s deepest producing oil field.
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This is particularly concerning considering the facility’s vast production prior to the pandemic. Tengiz is 50% owned by Chevron, which has invested heavily in the region, driving daily oil production up to 290,000 barrels, a figure that Chevron claims “could satisfy the annual oil demand of entire nations”. With the future of the facility uncertain, the continued spread of the virus could pose a significant threat to both Chevron and the Kazakhstan Government.
