Kazakhstan fast-tracks delivery of two new moorings for CPC terminal after drone strike hampers exports

The delivery of two new mooring points to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s (CPC) Black Sea terminal has been brought forward to January from April, Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said on Monday.

Exports by the CPC were curtailed after a Ukrainian drone strike damaged part of its loading infrastructure - one of its three single-point moorings (SPM) - on November 29.

The equipment replacement had been long in the CPC’s plans. The strike forced Kazakhstan to divert some oil to other routes, including to China.

CPC’s exports make up one per cent of global crude supply and the pipeline’s shareholders include Russian, Kazakh and US entities.

Weather complicates maintenance

The CPC’s 1,500-kilometre pipeline brings crude from Kazakhstan to the Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal at the Russian port of Novorossiysk and accounts for around 80 per cent of Kazakh oil exports. The attack heavily damaged SPM-2, leaving only one, SPM-1, in operation.

SPM-3 has been under maintenance since the middle of November and Kazakhstan has said it expected it to be operational again by the middle of December. The minister said the works aimed at returning SPM-3 to operation were complicated by unfavourable weather.

The equipment is located some five kilometres from the shore. "It is the internal currents in the bay and the strong wind that are complicating this work," he told reporters.

The minister also said last week Kazakhstan was adjusting down 2026 oil production plans due to expected maintenance at major oilfields and amid major damage from a Ukrainian drone attack on the Black Sea terminal.

(Reporting by Tamara Vaal; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Bernadette Baum)