Drone attacks struck two tankers near the Caspian Pipeline Consortium marine terminal outside Novorossiysk, forcing the company to suspend crude loading once again. The incident affected a strategic Black Sea outlet that carries oil from western Kazakhstan to international markets.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Nissos Sifnos was hit at 1:48 a.m. Moscow time while loading a Tengizchevroil cargo at single-point mooring SPM-3. A fire broke out on the cargo deck near the crude-receiving manifolds and was extinguished by the crew with assistance from three CPC support vessels.
No CPC employee, contractor or crew member was killed or injured, and no oil spill was detected. The tanker remained afloat while damage was being assessed, and the consortium said its main pipeline installations continued operating even though marine loading had stopped.
A second vessel, the Isle of Man-flagged Marathi, was attacked six nautical miles from the terminal while approaching to receive crude. The two incidents exposed both tankers already connected to offshore loading equipment and ships still navigating toward the facility.
The July 30 attacks followed a concentrated sequence around the same terminal. Nordic Zenith was damaged and caught fire on July 17; Asia and Nissos Ios were attacked during loading on July 19; and Nelsa was hit on July 20. Fires were extinguished and no spill was recorded in those incidents.
CPC repeatedly halted and resumed shipments during the disruption. Loading restarted on the evening of July 19, stopped again after the July 20 strike and resumed on July 27, only to be suspended after the latest attacks three days later.
The consortium operates a 1,511-kilometer pipeline connecting western Kazakh oil fields with Russia's Black Sea coast. Its shareholders include Russian and Kazakh state-linked companies as well as Chevron, Lukoil, ExxonMobil and a Rosneft-Shell joint venture.
The repeated strikes have created an operational risk around a major Caspian export corridor even without a spill or casualties. Each suspension can affect vessel scheduling and crude flows, while attacks close to offshore manifolds raise the potential cost of any future incident for both shipping and coastal infrastructure.
