The main outlet for Kazakh oil in the Black Sea faces sizeable throughput reductions over the next few weeks after a drone attack that Russia is blaming on Ukraine.
“The pumping of Kazakhstan’s oil via the CPC [Caspian Pipeline Consortium] may decrease by 30% during the repair of the pumping station,” Russian news agency Tass reported on Tuesday, citing Russia’s state-controlled oil company Transneft.
CPC, an international pipeline consortium carrying non-sanctioned Kazakh oil through Russia to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, reported on Monday that it has reduced flows to bypass the pumping station at Kropotkinskaya that was damaged earlier that day.
In an update on Tuesday, CPC did not offer any details as to the extent of the cuts, merely stating that “at present, oil is being received from shippers in accordance with the updated technical capabilities for pumping”.
“The shipment of raw materials for export at the [Novorossiysk] Marine Terminal continues as usual,” it added.
Last year, more than 63m tonnes of oil were pumped through Kropotkinskaya, the biggest pumping station on Russia territory along the CPC’s 1,500-km route. About 90% of this throughput came from Kazakhstan.
Aframaxes and suezmaxes frequently call to load at CPC’s marine terminal.
As TradeWinds reported on Monday, the Kropotkinskaya pumping station was attacked by several drones filled with explosives and metal spikes.
No human casualties or oil spills were recorded and CPC engineers are carrying out inspections to restore the facility “as soon as possible”.
The pipeline consortium did not immediately identify the perpetrators of the attack.
On Tuesday, however, the company said that Russian authorities had initiated a criminal case over the attack against Ukraine’s secret service and army.
Kyiv is known to be frequently targeting oil facilities in Russia in reprisals for missile attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
CPC facilities, however, have not been on Ukraine’s target list so far.
A Ukrainian attack on CPC would be all the more surprising because US oil major Chevron owns 15% of the company, alongside Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (19%).
The Russian state owns 24%.
In a statement on X, Russian vice president Dmitry Medvedev claimed the attack was part of a European and Ukrainian backlash against US President Donald Trump, who is negotiating a peace settlement for Ukraine directly with Moscow, bypassing Kyiv and European governments.
“An anti-Trump International seems to be taking shape in Europe,” Medvedev said.
The Ukrainian government is not known to have commented on the CPC incident so far.(Copyright)
