Greek tanker carrying Russian oil attacked near CTC terminal, — Bloomberg

The tanker Skiros was attacked after loading Russian oil near the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal.

Bloomberg reports this, citing informed sources.

The incident occurred on Sunday, August 16, near the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) marine terminal. The Suezmax tanker Skiros, capable of transporting about 1 million barrels of oil, was attacked. The Athens-based company that operates the vessel, according to Equasis, said there were no injuries or oil spills.

Although the terminal mainly exports Kazakh oil, the cargo on board the attacked tanker was of Russian origin, sources say. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine noted that they “have no data to comment on this issue.”

According to Bloomberg, this is the first attack on a vessel entering the CPC terminal — a key channel for the export of Kazakh oil — after an almost three-week break. Last month, repeated drone attacks had already disrupted the loading of CPC cargoes, which account for almost 2% of global oil supplies, and forced Kazakh fields to reduce production.

The incident occurred against the backdrop of an agreement brokered by the United States. Earlier, Bloomberg, citing an unnamed American official, wrote that Ukraine had agreed not to strike CPC infrastructure and non-Russian ships heading to the terminal. The condition is that the ships must not be under Ukrainian sanctions, must not be carrying Russian oil or other cargo, and must not belong to Russian individuals or entities. That is why the Russian-origin cargo on board the Skiros formally falls outside the scope of this agreement.

Late last month, after a series of attacks on tankers, CPC even considered suspending operations due to environmental and security risks, but decided to continue operations. The consortium includes major oil companies, including Chevron and ExxonMobil, as well as a Russian state pipeline company and a Kazakh state oil and gas company.