CPC Blend crude exports halted

CPC Blend crude exports halted

London, 23 March (Argus) — Loadings of Caspian CPC Blend were halted today following storm damage to offshore single point moorings (SPMs) at the Black Sea terminal where the crude is loaded.

"Loading at the sea terminal has been completely stopped," Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) general director Nikolai Gorban said. "Reception through the pipeline is taking place, but there is only free capacity left in tanks until tomorrow evening."

The CPC system is the main export route for Kazakhstan's crude. The CPC terminal near the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk has 10 storage tanks, each with 100,000m³ of capacity.

Earlier today Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak told Russia's lower parliamentary house, the Duma, that repairs to the SPMs could take one-and-a-half to two months "during which this volume of crude will not be supplied to global markets".

CPC had said yesterday that the system will operate at around a third of its normal capacity following storm damage to two of the three offshore SPMs where crude is loaded. "Repairs are likely to last for an extended period of time because of the unfavorable weather forecast," it said.

The disruption to CPC Blend supplies, which account for 80pc of Kazakh crude and condensate exports,