Caspian Oil Pipeline Shuts Down Again After Black Sea Drone Attack

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium has shut down again, following Ukrainian drone attacks on two tankers at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Reuters reported, citing the company operating the pipeline.

According to the operator of the pipeline, the drone attacks hit two tankers loading at Novorossiysk, causing fire on one of them. Following the release of the news, five tankers bound for Novorossiysk redirected to Turkey and Spain, or changed their status to “for orders”, Reuters reported. This is the third shutdown of the CPC in a month.

The new shutdown comes barely a couple of days after the CPC reopened after earlier drone attacks. The last shutdown extended for a week, crippling Kazakhstan’s exports and prompting a reduction in crude oil production.

Industry data cited by Reuters earlier this week showed Kazakhstan’s oil and gas condensate production fell to 133,200 metric tons, or about 1 million barrels per day, on Sunday, down from an average 2.16 million bpd in June. The disruption comes on top of continued trouble in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea that has seen the region’s oil output severely disrupted.

The 1,500-kilometer Caspian Pipeline Consortium pipeline transports crude from Kazakhstan’s giant Tengiz oilfield across southern Russia to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and carries more than 80% of Kazakhstan’s crude exports. International producers including Chevron and ExxonMobil rely on the route to move Tengiz production to global markets.

The Ukrainian forces have been targeting Russian energy infrastructure for months now, with CPC also among the targets on more than one occasion. The latest week-long shutdown briefly removed more than 1 million bpd of Kazakh production from the market, adding another supply risk as global oil flows remain under pressure from disruptions affecting both the Black Sea and Middle East shipping routes.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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