Exclusive-CPC oil loading plan revised down 33% for December as bad weather delays repairs

By Robert Harvey

MOSCOW/LONDON, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Oil shipments from Kazakhstan via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium are set to drop by a third in December to the lowest since October 2024 after a Ukrainian drone attack damaged facilities at the main CPC export terminal, two market sources said on Wednesday.

Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian energy infrastructure in recent months as it seeks to cut Moscow's revenues.

In November, Ukrainian drones hit the CPC terminal located near Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the loading point for oil from Kazakhstan's fields operated by U.S. and European oil majors Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Eni and Shell.

CPC Blend loadings will fall to 1.14 million barrels per day from 1.7 million bpd in the initial plan, the sources familiar with the loading programme said.

A CPC representative declined to comment on the terminal's operations and maintenance.

CUTS COULD BE DEEPER DEPENDING ON TIME NEEDED FOR REPAIRS

The cuts could be even deeper, depending on the progress of repairs at the CPC terminal, they added, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly on the issue.

Since November 29, the terminal has operated with a single mooring point - SPM-1 - after SPM-2 was taken offline following the drone attack. 

SPM-3 was already out of operation, since mid-November, for maintenance, which has been held up by bad weather.

As a result, a new round of cargo cancellations has been announced in recent days, three separate trade sources told Reuters. 

The CPC Terminal loaded 26 cargoes with around 3.28 million metric tons, equivalent to 26 million barrels, of crude oil over the period December 1-23, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.

Global oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel in the immediate aftermath of the November 29 attack and supplies of CPC Blend have shrunk as the grade's exporters have limited alternative shipment routes.

CPC plans CPC Blend crude exports in January at around 1.65 million bpd.

Exporters have been waiting for SPM-3 to come back online since early December and have had to adjust export plans multiple times and divert some volumes to other routes, including China and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, one of the sources said.

(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London and Reuters reporters in Moscow; editing by Barbara Lewis)