Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - A Russian court has ordered Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) , which uses one of the largest pipelines i...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - A Russian court has ordered Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which uses one of the largest pipelines in the world to transport oil from Kazakhstan to the Black Sea, to halt operations for 30 days, despite reports that exports are still occurring.
The CPC consortium, which includes American companies Chevron and Exxon, claimed the decision to halt operations was related to documentation on oil spills and that the consortium had to abide with the decision, which was made on Tuesday. CPC manages around 1% of the world's oil.
Following Tuesday's decision, oil shipments from the CPC facility on the Black Sea continued on Wednesday morning, according to two trading sources familiar with the terminal operations.
As of Wednesday morning, according to three further industry sources, the CPC pipeline was receiving oil supplies continuously from fields.
Regarding its business and activity, CPC refuses to disclose further.
Any significant CPC disruption would exacerbate the current supply bottleneck, which is one of the worst since the Arab oil embargo during the 1970s.
Since what Russia calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine, which has limited Russian exports despite Western sanctions and raised oil prices, the CPC pipeline has been in the news frequently.
The Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which transports Russian gas to Germany and other European countries, has already seen a reduction in Russian gas flows. Due to a disagreement over equipment maintenance, that pipeline has been working at 40 percent of its capacity.
Despite sanctions against Russian oil, the United States has stated that flows from Kazakhstan through Russia should continue unhindered.
Oil loadings from the CPC terminal were still going strong as of midday on July 5, according to a terminal situation report seen by Reuters, but it was unclear if operations would continue on July 6.
Viktoria Abramchenko, the deputy prime minister of Russia, reportedly gave the order to check the facilities of the Russian portion of the partnership to regulators, including Rostekhnadzor, according to CPC on Wednesday.
It claimed that several "documentary" errors on the plans for handling oil leaks had been discovered during the assessment. The terminal experienced an oil disaster last year.
Last year, the pipeline exported up to 54 million tonnes, or around 1.2 million barrels per day, of the principal crude grade for Kazakhstan—the light sour CPC Blend.
This year's Black Sea terminal equipment damage has already caused the pipeline's operations to be halted.
