The Ukrainian drone attack on a pumping station of a pipeline in southern Russia, which carries oil from Kazakhstan’s major oilfields, is a blow at U.S. companies, the oil market, and U.S. President Donald Trump, said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the powerful Security Council of Russia.
On Monday, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which operates the pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk port on Russia’s Black Sea coast and carries most of Kazakh crude exports, said that one of its pumping stations was attacked by drones.
After the attack, the Kropotkinskaya pumping station was taken out of service, and crude transportation through the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system is being maintained at reduced flow rates, bypassing the attacked pumping station, CPC said.
The Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline transports over two-thirds of all Kazakh export oil, as well as crude from Russian oil fields.
U.S. supermajor Chevron has just started up oil production at an expansion project at Tengiz, the largest oilfield in Kazakhstan, which will boost crude oil output by 260,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Chevron is a shareholder in the CPC consortium with 15%, alongside Russia with 24% and several other companies including Mobil Caspian Pipeline Company, an affiliate of ExxonMobil.
Kazakhstan’s oil exports via Russian infrastructure and passing through Russian territory are not subject to Western sanctions on Russia’s oil exports.
A day after the attack on the pumping station, Russia’s Medvedev, who is a former president, slammed on Tuesday Ukraine and its leadership in a fiery post on Telegram and said that the drone hit against the CPC is a strike on the oil consortium that “could halt oil flows, tip the market off balance, raise oil prices, and cause direct damage to American companies.”
The drone attack came a day before U.S. and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to start discussions on ending the war in Ukraine, without the participation of Ukraine.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
