/Reuters Agency
Kazakhstan asked Ukraine to stop attacking the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles more than 1% of the world’s oil, after a major drone offensive halted exports and severely damaged loading infrastructure.
The 1,500-kilometer CPC pipeline includes as shareholders Russia, the Kazakh state-owned company KazMunayGas, and units of Chevron, Russia’s Lukoil, and ExxonMobil. The CPC reported on Saturday, November 29, that a naval drone aggression against its terminal had “significantly damaged” Single-Point Mooring (SPM) 2, essentially a floating buoy that connects to tankers to load oil.
The CPC, which has Russian, Kazakh, and American shareholders, reported that it had halted operations after a mooring at its Russian Black Sea terminal was significantly damaged by an attack with Ukrainian naval drones.
This year, Ukraine has launched wave after wave of attacks against Russian oil refineries and crude terminals in an attempt to undermine one of the most important sources of revenue for the Russian war economy.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan noted that the drone attacks were the third series of aggressions against what it called “an exclusively civilian facility whose operation is protected by norms of international law.”
In this way, Kazakhstan “expresses its protest over another deliberate attack on the critical infrastructure of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium International in the waters of the port of Novorossiysk,” the ministry stated.
“We consider what happened as an action that harms the bilateral relations of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Ukraine, and we expect the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to prevent similar incidents in the future,” it added.
Ukraine stated that its actions were not directed against Kazakhstan or third parties, but were solely aimed at repelling what it called “large-scale Russian aggression.” In this sense, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that “Ukraine responds to the aggressor.”
The CPC accounts for about 80% of the oil exports of OPEC+ member Kazakhstan, which exported approximately 68.6 million tons of crude last year. It transports oil from the Tengiz, Karachaganak, and Kashagan fields in Kazakhstan to the Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal in Novorossiysk. The main suppliers to the CPC are fields in Kazakhstan, although it also collects crude from Russian producers.
“Subsequent operation of Single Point Mooring 2 is not possible. Loading operations and other operations were stopped and tankers were removed from the CPC maritime area. We believe the attack on the CPC is an attack on the interests of the CPC member countries,” the CPC communicated.
Ukraine claims that its attacks on infrastructure inside Russia are justified, as it fights for its existence in what it describes as an imperial-style war launched by Russia, which has targeted Ukraine’s energy sector ahead of winter.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that the Ukrainian attacks constitute “acts of terrorism,” and Russian officials maintain that European powers are involved in a hybrid war against Russia, which includes the use of Western intelligence agencies to help Kyiv attack infrastructure inside Russia.
The ministry noted that the attacks threaten freedom of navigation in the region.
