The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) said on Monday that it had resumed oil shipments from one mooring point at its Black Sea terminal following a major Ukrainian drone attack on November 29.
The CPC, which includes Russian, Kazakh and US shareholders, said on Saturday that the attack had halted operations because of serious damage to single-point mooring (SPM) 2 at its Novorossiysk terminal.
Ukraine has been attacking Russian oil refineries and crude oil terminals for months, in an attempt to undermine one of the most important sources of income for the Russian war economy. Russia, for its part, has also been pummelling Ukraine’s power and natural gas facilities.
CPC, which handles more than one per cent of global oil, told Reuters that it had resumed shipments from SPM 1. US oil major Chevron said late on Sunday that loadings of its Tengizchevroil venture’s crude oil were continuing.
Russia’s Kommersant daily, citing unnamed sources, said on Monday that oil loadings had resumed via mooring 1 (SPM 1), while SPM 2 was damaged. Usually, two moorings are engaged in loadings, while one is used as a backup.
SPM 3 has been idle under repair since November 12, according to Interfax news agency, citing a CPC representative, who had said the repair work could last up to two months.
CPC accounts for around 80 per cent of oil exports from Kazakhstan, which has limited options for overseas crude sales. Research consultancy Energy Aspects said the drone attacks halved CPC exports.
"The full CPC port closure yesterday was precautionary and SPM 1 may have been restarted or will do so soon. Satellite images show a vessel berthing SPM 1 today," it said.
"We understand from shippers that the National Caspian Oil Consortium has reduced intake from producers by 40 per cent, but they only have storage for 2.5 days," the analysts said. Beyond that, CPC would have to curb output until SPM 3 comes back online, they said.
Industry sources told Reuters last week, before the attack, that Black Sea CPC Blend oil exports were set to rise to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in December from about 1.45 million bpd in November.
CPC has said it plans to replace SPM 1 and SPM 2, which have been in operation since 2001, next year. The manufacture of the two new units is expected to be completed in December, the consortium has said.
The moorings are located some five kilometres from the shore and are linked to onshore terminal facilities by undersea pipelines.
Kazakhstan told Ukraine on Sunday to stop attacking CPC’s Black Sea terminal. Ukraine said its actions were not directed against Kazakhstan or third parties and were only aimed at repelling what it called "full-scale Russian aggression".
The Kremlin on Monday called the Ukrainian attack on CPC infrastructure "egregious" given its international significance and international participation.
(Reporting by Ishaan Arora and Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru, Reuters bureau in Moscow; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Joe Bavier and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
