Kazakhstan produced 0.5 billion cubic metres of marketed gas in September, the lowest monthly figure in the series the Bureau of National Statistics has kept since October 2011, inbusiness reported on Monday from the data as the Telegram channel DATA HUB presented them. The month came in 4.3 times below August and 3.3 times below September 2025.
West Kazakhstan region, which historically makes more than 80% of the country’s marketed gas, produced 370 million cubic metres in September, 5.5 times less than in August and 4.2 times less than a year earlier. Its oil output fell in step, 4.9 times month on month and 3.9 times year on year, to 206,000 tonnes. The region’s field is Karachaganak, and the bureau’s data name no cause.
The cause is on the energy ministry’s record. Karachaganak’s planned maintenance began on 7 September and ended on 1 October, the ministry told Interfax-Kazakhstan, and in September it had said the shutdown would cut oil output by up to 450,000 tonnes. “Yes, we resumed, as promised, on 1 October. Output is now at a stable level,” the ministry said in the agency’s report of 14 October.
West Kazakhstan region, which historically makes more than 80% of the country’s marketed gas, produced 370 million cubic metres in September, 5.5 times less than in August and 4.2 times less than a year earlier.
It was the field’s second interruption of the year: in June output was limited after shipments to the Orenburg gas processing plant in Russia were suspended. Karachaganak is run under a 40-year production sharing agreement of 1997 by Karachaganak Petroleum Operating, in which Shell and Eni hold 29.25% each, Chevron 18%, Lukoil 13.5% and KazMunayGas 10%, with reserves put at 1.2 billion tonnes of oil and 1.35 trillion cubic metres of gas.
By the ratios the bureau gives, August’s national output was about 2.15 billion cubic metres and September 2025’s about 1.65 billion. October is the first full month after the restart, and the bureau has yet to publish its figure.