Key facts
- The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has shut down its operations again.
- The shutdown follows Ukrainian drone attacks on two tankers at the Novorossiysk port.
- One of the targeted tankers caught fire.
- This is the third shutdown of the CPC pipeline in the past month.
- Kazakhstan's oil production fell to approximately 1 million barrels per day during the last shutdown.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) has again suspended operations after Ukrainian drone attacks targeted two tankers at the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. The company operating the pipeline confirmed that the drone strikes resulted in a fire on one of the vessels.
Following the news of the shutdown, five tankers en route to Novorossiysk were redirected to Turkey and Spain or had their status changed to "for orders." This incident marks the third time the CPC pipeline has been shut down within the last month.
The latest disruption comes just days after the pipeline reopened from a previous shutdown, which lasted a week and significantly impacted Kazakhstan's crude oil exports, leading to a reduction in production. Industry data indicated that Kazakhstan's oil and gas condensate production dropped to approximately 1 million barrels per day on Sunday, a sharp decrease from the average of 2.16 million barrels per day in June.
The 1,500-kilometer CPC pipeline is crucial for transporting crude oil from Kazakhstan's Tengiz oilfield to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, handling over 80% of Kazakhstan's crude exports. International producers like Chevron and ExxonMobil depend on this route for global market access.
Ukrainian forces have been consistently targeting Russian energy infrastructure, with the CPC pipeline being a recurring target. The previous week-long shutdown briefly removed over 1 million barrels per day of Kazakh production from the market, exacerbating existing supply risks amid ongoing disruptions in the Black Sea and Middle East shipping routes.