ALMATY (Reuters) — Kazakhstan’s biggest oil producer, Chevron-led Tengizchevroil (TCO), has temporarily paused some non-essential work activities as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said on Wednesday.

“Currently, TCO’s production operations remain uninterrupted”, it said in a statement. “The FGP-WPMP [expansion project is 77% complete and we are focused on taking actions to safely execute the project’s key critical-path activities.”

Tengizchevroil, in which Exxon Mobil, Russia’s Lukoil and Kazakh state firm KazMunayGaz also have stakes, accounts for almost a third of Kazakhstan’s total oil output.

The giant Tengiz oilfield operated by TCO has become a COVID-19 hotspot with 1,222 cases, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said this week. Kazakh news website Lada.kz published a TCO document on Wednesday ordering some workers to be furloughed until the end of this year.