MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian restrictions were imposed Black Sea oil export infrastructure from the Caspian pipeline (CPC) due to Ukrainian drone attacks on the pipeline’s infrastructure, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Russia ordered the Black Sea terminal handling Kazakhstan’s oil exports pumped by U.S. majors Chevron and Exxon Mobil to close two of its three moorings earlier this week following snap inspections by Russia’s transport watchdog.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of striking a CPC Kropotkinskaya pumping station and a nearby oil depot in southern Russia.
Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft also said earlier on Wednesday that it suspended an oil berth at the Novorossiisk Black Sea port due following the watchdog’s checks.
“This is due to the damage that was caused to the CPC infrastructure after the strikes by Ukrainian drones,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a daily conference call.
“We must not forget that enormous damage was done there, very complex damage in technological terms. And this cannot, of course, not have consequences for the functionality of the entire system, unfortunately,” he said.
The attacks occurred amid efforts, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Kazakhstan and Chevron have said the flows via the pipeline had not been interrupted.
Trump has said he was unhappy with Russia and the rate of progress in peace talks with Ukraine, and threatened to impose secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
