*

Energy ministry: output at Korolev restarted, Tengiz to

restart

in near future

*

TCO says oil output slowly restarting after January 18

outage

*

Tengiz accounts for nearly half of Kazakhstan's oil output

*

CPC restored full loading capacity after completing

maintenance

(Adds background throughout, sources being sceptical about

output resumption, Caspian pipeline restoring crucial piece of

exporting equipment)

By Tamara Vaal, Felix Light and Vladimir Soldatkin

ASTANA/ALMATY/MOSCOW, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan is

poised to resume production from its biggest oil field, the

energy ‌ministry said on Monday, but industry sources said

volumes were still low and a force majeure on CPC Blend exports

was still in place.

The world's number 12 oil producer ​has been recently plagued

by several incidents, including drone attacks on a crucial

exporting facility and a fire and power ‍outage at Kazakhstan's

largest oilfield, Tengiz, which hurt its output and exports.

Tengizchevroil, led by Chevron ( CVX ), ⁠had temporarily

halted production at the ⁠Tengiz and Korolev oilfields on January

18.

Chevron ( CVX ) said on Monday that the company has restarted oil

production, without naming the field.

POWER SUPPLY RESTORED TO OIL FIELDS

"Tengizchevroil (TCO) confirms safe ‌commencement of the site

power distribution system and the resumption of ​initial crude

oil production," a Chevron ( CVX ) spokesperson said on Monday.

Separately, Kazakhstan's energy ministry said on Monday that

Tengiz was preparing to resume oil output soon, and that

production at the Korolev oilfield was already in ⁠operation.

"The safe start-up of the power supply system has now ‍been

confirmed, and the ​Tengiz field will be brought back online in

the near future," the ministry said.

However, at least two industry sources expressed their

scepticism about the scale of the initial oil production, noting

that TCO has yet to lift ‍a force majeure on CPC Blend supplies

issued after the field's shutdown.

Chevron ( CVX ) said it does not comment on specific details of its

operations.

One source said that the fields now produced only around

8,000 metric tons per day, an equivalent of about 60,000 barrels

per day, only about 6% of its usual levels.

JPMorgan said on Friday that Tengiz might remain offline for

the rest of the month, and estimated Kazakhstan's January crude

was likely to average between 1 million and 1.1 million barrels

per day, compared with ​a usual ‍level of around 1.8 million bpd.

KAZAKHSTAN'S GOVERNMENT MEETS EXXON

Kazakhstan's government said earlier on Monday that Prime

Minister Olzhas Bektenov had met ExxonMobil ( XOM ) Vice

President Peter Larden and urged the U.S. energy company to

accelerate work to deal ​with the outage and prevent similar

incidents in future.

With a 25% stake, ExxonMobil ( XOM ) is the second-largest

shareholder in the TCO consortium behind Chevron ( CVX ), which holds

50%. Kazakhstan's KazMunayGaz has 20%, and Russia's Lukoil 5% of

the group.

CASPIAN PIPELINE CONSORTIUM RESUMES SPM-3 OPERATIONS

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which operates

Kazakhstan's main exporting pipeline said on Sunday that it

returned to full loading capacity at its terminal on the Russian

Black Sea coast after maintenance was completed at one of its

three mooring points, known as SPMs.

An industry source said that the crude oil tanker Paschalis

DD is scheduled to dock ​at the terminal for loadings from the

repaired SPM-3 on Monday at 2 p.m. (1100 GMT).

Oil exports via the CPC dropped by 24% in December from the

previous month, according to an industry source, to 3.98 million

metric tons, or around 1.02 million barrels per day.