The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) expects repairs to a single point mooring (SPM) at its Black Sea terminal to be delayed from October to early November due to bad weather, three sources familiar with the work told Reuters.
CPC suspended oil loadings from two of three SPMs at its Black Sea terminal Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka in August due to storm damage.
At least two SPMs are needed for the terminal to operate at normal capacity and loadings are currently reduced.
“The work is in progress, but delayed due to bad weather,” one of the sources said, adding that several clear days were still needed to complete the work.
The second source said that oil loadings from the repaired SPM were expected to resume on Nov. 3-4, while previously they had been scheduled to restart at the end of October.
According to port situation notes at the CPC terminal seen by Reuters, gale warnings have been issued daily since Oct. 23. The terminal was open on Wednesday with loadings subject to weather conditions.
Black Sea CPC Blend crude oil exports were set at 5.398 million tonnes for November, up from 4.24 million tonnes in the revised October plan.
Kazakhstan’s energy minister said previously he expected shipments via CPC to return to full capacity by mid-October.
CPC said last week it was not able to start repair work due to bad weather conditions. A CPC representative declined to comment on the current state of repair works on Wednesday.
The main CPC shareholders are Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft with 24%, Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas (19%), Chevron Caspian Pipeline Consortium Company (15%) LUKARCO B.V (12.5%), Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company (7.5%), CPC Company (7%) and Rosneft-Shell Caspian Ventures Limited (7.5%).
