Suezmax Skiros Attacked After Loading at the CPC Terminal
First strike on a vessel calling at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium berth in almost three weeks
A Greek-run oil tanker was attacked in the Black Sea after loading a Russian-origin cargo, breaking a pause of almost three weeks in strikes on vessels calling at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal.
The Suezmax Skiros, which can carry about one million barrels of oil, was attacked on Sunday after loading at the CPC terminal near the southern Russian port city of Novorossiysk. The operating company said there were no injuries and no pollution from the incident, and declined to comment further.
The attack is significant because of what preceded it. Kyiv had halted attacks on oil tankers using the CPC terminal at Novorossiysk after US Vice President JD Vance asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a July 31 call to stop them.
Russia and Kazakhstan condemned what they described as Ukrainian drone attacks on vessels loading oil at the CPC marine terminal last month. Kyiv has acknowledged such attacks in some cases, saying strikes on Russian energy infrastructure are intended to deprive Moscow of the resources to fund the war in Ukraine.
Earlier this month it was reported, citing a US official, that Kyiv had agreed not to target certain non-Russian oil tankers and Black Sea infrastructure critical to Kazakh oil exports, following the July 31 talks between senior US government leaders and Ukraine's leadership.
The CPC terminal occupies an awkward position in that arrangement. It sits on Russian territory and loads Russian-origin cargoes, but it is also the outlet for a large share of Kazakh crude, which is what the understanding was meant to protect. A strike on a vessel that has just loaded there tests the boundary between the two categories.
