Drone attacks in the Black Sea took out as much as a fifth of Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) oil loadings in July, four sources familiar with the data said, as the Russia-Ukraine war spilled over to hit Kazakhstan's and western oil majors' sales.
CPC loadings fell more than 20 per cent behind July's schedule to around 1.2 million to 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) after drone attacks near the Black Sea export terminal disrupted supplies, the sources said.
The CPC pipeline, which transports crude from Kazakhstan to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, accounts for about 1.8 per cent of global oil supply.
The disruption has added to supply concerns at a time when markets are already focused on risks linked to the Middle East conflict. Operations at the CPC terminal have been repeatedly interrupted since mid-July. Oil loadings were suspended again on Friday morning after briefly resuming on Thursday, two sources said.
According to data from analytics firm Kpler and two sources, CPC Blend crude loadings have averaged about 1.1 million to 1.2 million bpd so far in August, indicating that exports remain below the reduced July level as disruption persists.
Kazakhstan, which relies heavily on the CPC route for its crude exports, experienced a 14 per cent drop in oil production in July from June, according to the sources. Major Western oil companies operating in Kazakhstan include Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said that Ukrainian forces had attacked oil tankers during loading operations at the CPC terminal and accused Kyiv of trying to destabilise global oil markets.
Kyiv has stepped up its strikes on Russian energy infrastructure but Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for, nor commented on, the drone attacks on the facilities that handle predominantly Kazakh crude.
CPC declined to comment on the July and August loadings.
It has not publicly commented on the latest disruption. Kazakhstan has few alternative export routes capable of replacing CPC volumes - typically around 1.5 million to 1.7 million bpd - making the pipeline critical for the country's oil sector and government revenue.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)