The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has berthed a second tanker at its recently repaired single point mooring (SPM-3) at its Black Sea terminal, resuming stable oil loadings at capacity, people familiar with the matter said.
The Agistri tanker was scheduled to load 130,000 tonnes of oil at the SPM-3 facility on Tuesday after the departure of the Paschalis DD, which finished loading on Monday, they said. The Agistri vessel could be seen at the moment near the SPM-3 facility on the interactive map, according to LSEG shipping data.
A Ukrainian drone strike in late November destroyed one of the mooring facilities and forced CPC to operate below capacity, with only one facility functional while SPM-3 was under maintenance. On Sunday, CPC announced that SPM-3 had returned to service.
The loading of a second tanker marks the long-awaited restoration of SPM-3 operations, enabling CPC—the main export route for Kazakhstan's oil—to maintain stable throughput at full capacity.
The CPC terminal can maintain full export capacity with two operational SPMs, while the third is typically held as a reserve.
A CPC representative declined to comment on daily operations.
(Reporting by Reuters Editing by Tomasz Janowski)