Coronavirus spreads at major Kazakh oilfield's worker camp

Ten people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at one of the worker camps located next to the giant Tengiz oilfield in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh authorities said on Saturday. The Chevron-led consortium operating Tengiz, the Central Asian nation's No.1 oil producer, was not immediately available for comment on Saturday.

However, the company, Tengizchevroil, said this week it had taken measures to ensure the safety of workers on the site and avoid output disruptions. Tengizchevroil made the comment in an email to Reuters on April 9 after the first case was confirmed at a 2,000-bed camp in the so-called rotational village where workers of the company and its contractors stay during their weeks-long shifts.

On Saturday, the Kazakh government said that after tracing the contacts of the first infected person, nine more people have been diagnosed with the same disease. According to the consortium, the camp has been locked down and workers can enter the Tengiz field itself only after being quarantined for 14 days. Tengizchevroil has also decided to delay a planned maintenance turnaround until next year.