Trouble on the steppe
Major new investment in Tengiz cannot mask deeper problems in Kazakhstan
AS a vote of confidence in the Kazakh oil sector it is hard to beat. On 5 July, Chevron and its partners in the 0.6m-barrel-a-day Tengiz project in the Caspian sea said they would spend another $36.8bn to add another 260,000 b/d of output from the field by 2022. Forget the oil-price slump, the project is one of the largest to be sanctioned in the past 10 years. After years of troubled progress and mixed deadlines at Kazakhstan's other major oil project, Kashagan, the Tengiz news was especially welcome in Astana. Yet for all the fanfare around the Tengiz announcement, Kazakhstan is in a state of flux, and its politics dangerous. The central Asian state, which holds the world's eleventh la
Also in this section
19 January 2026
Newfound optimism is emerging that a dormant exploration frontier could become a strategic energy play and—whisper it quietly—Europe’s next offshore opportunity
16 January 2026
The country’s global energy importance and domestic political fate are interlocked, highlighting its outsized oil and gas powers, and the heightened fallout risk
16 January 2026
The global maritime oil transport sector enters 2026 facing a rare convergence of crude oversupply, record newbuild deliveries and the potential easing of several geopolitical disruptions that have shaped trade flows since 2022
15 January 2026
Rebuilding industry, energy dominance and lower energy costs are key goals that remain at odds in 2026
