The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is restarting oil loadings at its Black Sea terminal near Novorossiysk, Russia, after operations were suspended due to drone attacks. This comes as a relief to Kazakhstan, which relies heavily on the CPC pipeline for its crude exports. The halt to shipments, which began on Tuesday, was a direct consequence of tanker companies being hesitant to send their vessels to the facility following a spate of attacks on tankers in the area.
Several sources, including Bloomberg.com, had previously reported on the suspension of oil flows. Kazakhstan was forced to stop piping crude to its main export terminal on Russia’s Black Sea coast. The MarketScreener.com and au.marketscreener.com reports confirmed the suspension of CPC oil loadings following these attacks, with one instance on July 19 targeting the ASIA and NISSOS IOS tankers at VPU-1 and VPU-3 outriggers, according to news-pravda.com.
The drone strikes, which occurred on multiple occasions, led to damage on tankers and disrupted operations at the CPC’s marine terminal. The ASIA tanker, flying the flag of Liberia and receiving oil from Tengizchevroil (involving Chevron), caught fire, though it was extinguished without fatalities. The NISSOS IOS tanker, under the Marshall Islands flag and loading oil from Kashagan B.V. and Maten, was also impacted. The CPC characterized these incidents as "terrorist attacks on civilian vessels and an international energy infrastructure facility," highlighting the involvement of international companies and crews. This terminal is crucial, carrying more than two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s crude exports and accounting for roughly 1% of global oil supply, as detailed by theoceaniatimes.com.
Despite the significant disruptions and the condemnation from Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Energy, which labeled them as terrorist attacks, the CPC has a history of restoring operations relatively quickly after previous incidents. The consortium, which includes major oil and gas companies from Russia, Kazakhstan, the United States, and several Western European countries, emphasized the terminal's role in global energy security. No timetable for resuming loadings was immediately announced after the recent strikes, but the latest reports confirm the restart of operations.
