Kazakhstan, among the world's 10 biggest oil producers, has more than halved its daily oil output following the closure of a main exporting terminal in Russia's Black Sea over drone attacks, an industry source said on Monday.
The production decline in Kazakhstan is likely to add to wider global oil supply jitters over the Strait of Hormuz's effective closure and risks of passage over other main sea routes for commodity exports.
It also shows the over-reliance of the world's largest landlocked country on Russia for its energy exports.
The industry source said oil and gas condensate production in Kazakhstan more than halved on Sunday from the average June levels to 133,200 tonnes, or around one million barrels per day, from 2.16 million bpd.
Kazakhstan's energy ministry said later on Monday that Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline loading operations had resumed. It did not comment on the output cuts.
The ministry had said last week that oil companies had reduced output due to export constraints and CPC loadings had been suspended for safety reasons.
The pipeline accounts for more than 80 per cent of oil exports from Kazakhstan, in which a number of international oil majors operate, including US companies Chevron and ExxonMobil.
More than 1,500 kilometres (940 miles) long, the CPC pipeline runs from Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield in the west of the country via Russia to the port of Novorossiysk on Russia's Black Sea coast.
Drones attacked several tankers at or near the terminal as Ukraine and Russia have escalated counterattacks on vessels and other targets as the more than four-year war rages on.
Speaking alongside Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Saturday that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine might be reached if the sides froze the conflict and resumed negotiations.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
