Traders say CPC Blend exports to fall in September

Black Sea CPC Blend crude oil exports will reach just short of 1.6 million barrels per day in September, three trade sources told Reuters.

That will mark a drop from 1.66 million bpd scheduled to load in August.

The September CPC Blend loading schedule will consist of 46 Suezmax-sized cargoes, two sources said.

Usually, monthly CPC Blend export schedules contain both Suezmax cargoes of around one million barrels, and smaller Aframax cargoes of around 600,000-700,000 barrels.

One of the three single point moorings (SPM) at the CPC Terminal is set to close for maintenance for two weeks from late August, four sources told Reuters.

No delays are currently expected in loadings as a result of the maintenance, two sources added.

CPC Terminal declined to comment on the maintenance, and it does not comment on monthly loading totals.

The terminal has been using two SPMs for loadings since a Russian court lifted restrictions on the facility in April, after an inspection following an oil spill last year saw the terminal close two SPMs.

The CPC pipeline connects Kazakhstan's oil fields with export markets through a Russian Black Sea port of Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka near Novorossiysk.

The pipeline ships mainly Kazakh oil and a small portion of Russian oil, from the CPC Terminal located on Russia's Black Sea coast at Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka.

(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Joe Bavier)