Kazakhstan reroutes oil exports after drone attack cuts CPC pipeline capacity
- Kazakh oil shipments via BTC seen up 30% in December vs. November
- More Kazakh oil seen loaded at Ust-Luga in December
- Kazakhstan seeking other export routes after CPC pipeline cut capacity
Kazakhstan will divert more crude through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in December after its main export route, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, cut capacity following damage from a Ukrainian drone attack, five industry sources said.
The CPC pipeline, which carries over 80% of Kazakhstan's oil exports and handles more than 1% of global supply, briefly halted operations on Saturday after a mooring at its Black Sea terminal near Russia's Novorossiisk port was damaged, the operator said.
CPC resumed loadings on Monday via the only operational single point mooring (SPM), allowing exports to continue at lower capacity. The third SPM at CPC's terminal is under scheduled repair. CPC is racing to finish the maintenance ahead of schedule, media reported on Tuesday.
Kazakhstan plans to raise shipments from its Caspian Sea port of Aktau to BTC to about 188,000 metric tons (47,000 bpd) in December, up about 30% from November, two of the sources said. Of that, 170,000 tons will come from Tengizchevroil (TCO) and 18,000 tons from the Kashagan field.
However, volumes through BTC are limited by Aktau's port capacity and oil quality requirements.
Kazakh producers also ship crude to Russia's Novorossiisk and Ust-Luga ports under the KEBCO brand and to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline, but those routes offer lower margins and depend on the capacity of Russian pipeline operator Transneft.
Russia's pipeline system is stretched after repeated drone strikes on its refineries and export facilities, leaving little room for extra Kazakh flows, the sources said.
One source said producers may add 140,000 tons of Urals crude to Ust-Luga loadings in December.
Kazakhstan's Ministry of Energy and the NCOC consortium, which operates Kashagan, did not respond to requests for comment. TCO declined to comment.
TCO resumed BTC exports in November after suspending them in August due to excessive organic chlorides in the Azeri BTC grade. In October, Askhat Khasenov, head of KazMunayGas, said the state company was in talks to increase BTC oil shipments to 2.2 MM tons in 2026, from 1.2 MM tons this year.
Kazakh crude reaches Baku in Azerbaijan by tanker from Aktau, mainly from the Tengiz and Kashagan fields, before flowing through BTC to Turkey's Ceyhan port.
Comments