Moscow — The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) said on Friday that a Russian court ruled that its Black Sea export terminal facilities should not be suspended, in a major victory for the Western-backed consortium.
The decision looks set to avert a potential fall in Kazakhstan’s oil production and supplies via the CPC, which accounts for around 80% of the country’s oil exports.
Industry sources told Reuters about a flurry of diplomatic activity over the pipeline’s operations between Russia and Kazakhstan before the court ruling.
Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Thursday that its head, Nikolai Tokarev, met the CEO of Kazakh state energy company KazMunayGaz, Askhat Khassenov, in Moscow. Both companies are large CPC stakeholders.
Transneft did not mention CPC directly in its statement about the meeting.
Russia’s transport regulator this month ordered CPC, whose shareholders include Chevron and Exxon Mobil, to suspend operations at two of the three moorings at its Black Sea export terminal after snap inspections following a massive oil products spill in December.
The court, having considered the inspection, ruled to hold the Russian part of the CPC consortium liable and imposed an administrative fine of 200,000 roubles ($2,357) without suspension of the exporting facilities, CPC said on Friday.
It was not immediately clear when the CPC export terminal would resume normal operations. CPC declined to comment on the timing.
CPC has been in the spotlight since Russia’s war in Ukraine. The consortium closed all but one of its mooring points several times in 2022 due to damage severely cutting exports via the route.
Transneft said on Wednesday it had suspended a mooring at the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk for 90 days following a snap inspection by the transportation watchdog.
A court is also due to rule on the suspension later on Friday.
Oil exports via the CPC pipeline were set for April at 1.7 million barrels per day, or approximately 6.5 million metric tons.
The CPC pipeline is a major oil export route for Kazakhstan, which – due mainly to rising production from the giant Chevron-led Tengiz oilfield – has been breaching export quotas within the OPEC+ producer group, which includes OPEC and Russia.
Other OPEC+ members, including Saudi Arabia, have also been pressing Kazakhstan to cut production to meet its quotas.
On Thursday, OPEC+ decided to raise output ahead of schedule, signalling the group was confident non-compliant members would reduce output in the coming weeks.
($1 = 84.4000 roubles)
Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Jan Harvey, David Goodman and Louise Heavens – Reuters
