Kazakhstan's CPC crude loadings to restart from one loading point after outage: minister

Kazakhstan's CPC crude oil loadings at the Russian port of Novorossiisk are to resume from one of the three loading points on March 25 following a shutdown resulting from storm damage, Kazakh energy minister Bolat Akchulakov said.

Loadings of Kazakhstan's main export crude grade were completely halted on March 23 after damage was discovered at two of the three loading points in the Russian Black Sea port, adding to tightness in global markets amid fears of a lengthy shutdown.

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Landlocked Kazakhstan relies on a 1,500 km pipeline across Russia for the bulk of its exports of the light, relatively low-sulfur crude. CPC Blend is a major supply source for world markets, with loadings of more than 1.5 million b/d in February, according to the terminal operator.

In a briefing March 25 in the Kazakh capital, Akchulakov said that following an inspection, one of the three CPC loading points, for which there had been no confirmed damage, had been given the all-clear, state news agency Kazinform reported.

"Yesterday we carried out a technical consultation with our CPC colleagues. This morning we've been informed that Single-Point Mooring facility 1 will start work today, a tanker will arrive. This in principle saves us from significant production losses," Akchulakov was quoted by state news agency Kazinform as saying.

As for the other two loading points that had suffered storm damage, "in the next two to three weeks we hope that our colleagues will complete repairs and everything will be normalized," he said.

The minister did not specify how much crude could be loaded using just one mooring point, but the facilities typically have some spare capacity, meaning flows could exceed one third of typical loadings.

Major international companies such as Chevron, Shell, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Italy's Eni all have stakes in Kazakhstan's upstream production.

The US Treasury has said CPC crude is exempt from sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine.