Drone and marine drone attacks on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal near Novorossiysk have disrupted the loading of two additional tankers. The terminal handles over 80% of Kazakhstan's oil exports, reports inbusiness.kz citing The Moscow Times.
On Thursday night, two vessels were forced to leave the terminal area without taking on cargo. According to sources, the tanker HERA, which was scheduled to load oil from Lukoil, sustained damage in the attack. The tanker ALATAU, which was to load crude from the national company KazMunayGas, was not damaged but changed course due to the threat from unmanned surface vessels.
According to LSEG ship tracking data, HERA turned off its transponder after leaving the Bosphorus in the Black Sea on July 20. The vessel was expected to arrive at Novorossiysk on Thursday morning. ALATAU, which had been heading to the terminal since July 19, later altered its course toward Istanbul and also stopped transmitting location data.
On Thursday morning, two more tankers — SEA AMBER and DELTA IOS — declined to call at the CPC terminal and headed toward the Turkish coast, according to LSEG data.
The CPC has not commented on the situation. Satellite images showed that no tankers were at the terminal on Thursday morning.
This is not the first such incident in the past month. In July, five tankers were attacked by drones near the CPC marine terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka, near Novorossiysk. Following one of the attacks on July 20, the consortium announced a temporary suspension of oil loading.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy said it is conducting continuous consultations to find solutions for the speedy restoration of stable Kazakh oil exports to global markets.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium remains the main export route for Kazakh oil. More than 80% of the country's oil exports pass through its infrastructure, including crude from the giant Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak fields, which is loaded onto tankers via the terminal in Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka.