Kazakh Black Sea oil exports halted by new Russian regulations, sources say
The lack of port access to foreign ships, which also affected Russian oil exports from the port of Novorossiisk, could amount to more than 2% of global oil supply, according to Reuters calculations based on loadings data from the region.
It comes days after the EU imposed fresh sanctions on Russia and complicates operations of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, whose shareholders include Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab and ExxonMobil (XOM.N), opens new tab.
CPC ships oil through the pipeline, which carries more than 80% of all Kazakh oil exports, and further via Russia's Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal.
On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signed a law under which foreign ships will require the approval of Russia's FSB security service to access the country's ports.
The decree said that permission from port authorities for foreign ships to enter would need to be agreed with the FSB, which is the main successor organisation to the Soviet-era KGB. The new measures came into force immediately after the decree was published.
CPC and Russia's ministry of transport declined to comment on the suspension.
One of the sources said he expected the situation at the ports to be resolved in a day or two.
Black Sea CPC Blend oil exports from the CPC terminal in Russia were set at 1.66 million barrels per day for August, or about 6.5 million metric tons, almost unchanged from the July export plan. Exports and oil transit via Novorossisk are seen around 2.2 million metric tons in July, according to industry sources.
Mediterranean oil markets were already jittery following a contamination scare which led to delayed loadings of Azeri BTC crude oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan in recent days.
CPC's operations were also disrupted by a damaged pumping station in February in a suspected drone attack, and Russia's brief restrictions on capacity of the CPC's Black Sea terminal in April.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
12 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump pauses export controls to bolster China trade deal, FT says
July 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. has paused curbs on tech exports to China to avoid disrupting trade talks with Beijing and support President Donald Trump's efforts to secure a meeting with President Xi Jinping this year, the Financial Times said on Monday. The industry and security bureau of the Commerce Department, which oversees export controls, has been told in recent months to avoid tough moves on China, the newspaper said, citing current and former officials. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House and the department did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside business hours. Top U.S. and Chinese economic officials are set to resume talks in Stockholm on Monday to tackle longstanding economic disputes at the centre of a trade war between the world's top two economies. Tech giant Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab said this month it would resume sales of its H20 graphics processing units (GPU) to China, reversing an export curb the Trump administration imposed in April to keep advanced AI chips out of Chinese hands over national security concerns. The planned resumption was part of U.S. negotiations on rare earths and magnets, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said. The paper said 20 security experts and former officials, including former deputy US national security adviser Matt Pottinger, will write on Monday to Lutnick to voice concern, however. "This move represents a strategic misstep that endangers the United States' economic and military edge in artificial intelligence," they write in the letter, it added.
Reuters
12 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russia's Aeroflot reports failure in information systems
July 28 (Reuters) - Russia's national carrier Aeroflot said on Monday that a failure has occurred in the airline's information systems, which may cause temporary disruptions in service operations. "As a result, schedule adjustments for some flights are expected, including delays and cancellations," Aeroflot said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The carrier said that "specialists are currently working to minimize the impact on the flight schedule and to restore normal service operations", but it did not disclose details on the scale of the failure or possible cause. The carrier, which despite sanctions imposed on Russia for its war in Ukraine that drastically limited travel and routes, remains among the top 20 worldwide by passenger numbers. In 2024, passenger traffic of the Aeroflot Group reached 55.3 million passengers, according to a statement on the airline's website.
The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Muscovites' travel plans disrupted as Ukraine targets airspace with drones
Early in the morning on Monday last week, Vladimir Shevchuk, 38, his wife, and their two children arrived at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, suitcases full of beachwear and ready to fly to the Turkish beach destination Antalya for a long-planned summer break. Like tens of thousands of Muscovites, the Shevchuks were hoping to escape the city's heat for their summer holidays, until an announcement rang out across the terminal: all flights suspended. They spent the day – and night – sleeping on the airport's concrete floor, waiting for updates. It wasn't until the next morning that they were told their flight had been rescheduled for later in the week. 'We saved up for this trip for a year,' Shevchuk said. 'Our hotel and car rental can't be reimbursed, and we simply can't reschedule.' Tens of thousands of passengers like Shevchuk have seen their travel plans thrown into chaos in recent weeks, as Ukrainian drones repeatedly disrupt airspace over Russia's capital. What began as isolated interruptions have evolved into a systematic Ukrainian campaign, aimed at bringing the war home to ordinary Russians – many of whom have otherwise experienced it only from their television screens. Their inconvenience is trivial compared with the daily reality faced by Ukrainian civilians, who live under the constant threat of deadly missile and drone attacks. But for many Russians – who have largely remained insulated from the direct impacts of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – this may be the most tangible sign yet that the conflict has begun to intrude on their everyday lives. While few Ukrainian drones make it through the heavily fortified air defences around Moscow, their relative cheapness compared with the chaos they cause makes them an efficient means of targeting Russia's sense of stability. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has long abandoned efforts to persuade ordinary Russians to oppose the war. Instead, Kyiv's strategy seems focused on making the cost of continued aggression impossible to ignore – not just because of the coffins returning from the frontline, but through growing disruptions to daily life. Ukrainian officials have not yet formally commented on the tactic, but they have emphasised repeatedly that life in Russia should not remain comfortable for a population that, by and large, continues to support the war. And the tactic seems to be bearing fruit: regular airport shutdowns and missed holidays have become a major talking point among the Russian public – and a growing source of frustration. Beyond the anecdotal stories of missed holidays and ruined business trips, there is a very real and mounting economic cost for Russia's aviation industry, already strained by western sanctions. During the most severe wave of travel disruption to date, from 6-7 July, airlines across the country cancelled 485 flights and delayed about 1,900 more, according to Russia's federal air transport agency. More than 43,000 forced ticket refunds were issued, 94,000 passengers were placed in hotels, and more than 350,000 food and drink vouchers were handed out. 'It's not just a headache. The drones completely disrupt our operations,' said a senior manager at one of Moscow's main airports, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'We can't go on like this forever,' the manager added. The plane chaos appears to have caught the attention of Russia's leadership. Earlier this month, Putin dismissed the country's transport minister without offering any official explanation. But the risks for Russia in keeping its skies open are stark. In December last year, 38 people were killed when Russian air defences mistakenly shot down an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan, during an attempt to intercept a Ukrainian drone targeting Grozny airport. The incident has triggered an unprecedented diplomatic rift with Azerbaijan. Russian airports are preparing for the chaos to become a permanent feature. At Sheremetyevo, the country's busiest airport, staff were filmed last Tuesday handing out mattresses to stranded passengers. Several major international carriers that continue to operate flights to Russia – including Turkish Airlines and Emirates – have reportedly begun adjusting their schedules to account for the increasingly frequent airspace shutdowns. For Shevchuk, the upheaval did little to shake his support for Russia's war in Ukraine. 'The sooner we put an end to Ukraine, the better,' he said. When asked whether the experience had made him reflect on the daily suffering and bombardment faced by Ukrainian civilians, he shrugged. 'That's not my problem. Why should our lives be affected by this?'
