Seven unmanned aerial vehicles loaded with explosives and shrapnel hit the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s Kropotkinskaya pumping station in Russia on February 17, causing disruption in the flow.
The CPC pumps around 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports to the Russian port of Novorossiysk. While Kropotkinskaya, the largest CPC pumping station in Russia, was taken out of service, the consortium said oil transport “is being maintained at reduced flow rates, bypassing the pumping station.”
There have been several disruptions in oil transit via the CPC in recent years, both related to bad weather at the Black Sea terminal and to legal spats with Russia. This is the first direct UAV attack on the pipeline, which the consortium labeled “terrorist.”
Despite attempts to find alternative transit routes, Kazakhstan still heavily relies on the CPC. The consortium, made up of Russia’s state-owned oil transport network Transneft and Kazakhstan’s Kazmunaigas, as well as Chevron and other major oil corporations, has expanded its throughput capacity in recent years.
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