A power outage on Tuesday led to the suspension of work of several refineries in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the commodity price assessment agency Argus Media reported on Wednesday.
"All enterprises of the oil, gas and petrochemical industries of Uzbekistan, including refineries, stopped their operations due to a failure in the unified power grid of Central Asian countries," Argus Media said citing the industry source.
Uzbekistan has Fergana and Bukhara oil refineries with a total refining capacity of 10-11 million tons per year, owned by state company Uzbekneftegaz.
"After power supply is restored, work is underway to gradually put the existing processing units in oil and gas production departments and plants back into operation. In particular, the Mubarek gas processing plant, the Shurtan gas chemical complex and the Bukhara refinery have continued their activities," Uzbekneftegaz said on Wednesday.
In Kazakhstan, the Shymkent oil refinery with the annual production capacity of 6 million tons stopped all its technological operations on Tuesday, the owner of the refinery PetroKazakhstan Oil Products said, adding that the processing units will launch gradually.
Large-scale power cuts also took place in Kyrgyzstan, but local market participants did not report any outages of industrial facilities.
The blackout occurred after a major power line in southern Kazakhstan was disconnected, according to that country’s grid operator KEGOC. Neighboring Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were also affected as the power grids of the three central Asian nations are interconnected.
