The Greek-operated tanker Maran Homer was hit by an unidentified object at 0435 local time on Saturday while waiting to load at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium single-point mooring terminal off Novorossiysk, according to Greece’s shipping ministry and operator Maran Tankers Management.
Maran Tankers Management said the vessel was in ballast in international waters of the Black Sea and was awaiting instructions to load Kazakh-origin oil. The company said the tanker sustained minor damage to the deck and deck equipment, and no pollution was reported. After the incident, Maran Homer left the area and got underway.
Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the strike. At Novorossiysk, the inner-harbor Sheskharis terminal loads only Russian oil, while the offshore CPC terminal loads mainly Kazakh oil moved overland through Russia.
The source text said Ukraine has previously attacked the CPC pipeline, the loading terminal and tanker traffic linked to the system. It also said those actions drew pushback from the U.S. government, which views the CPC as important to American interests in the region. Chevron and ExxonMobil hold minority stakes in the CPC pipeline and terminal, and together own 75 percent of Kazakhstan’s Tengiz field, which supplies the pipeline.
The source text also said the CPC terminal remains a key export route because Kazakhstan has limited alternatives for moving Tengiz crude to global markets. It added that warnings of possible Ukrainian strikes on the loading terminal, along with other factors, have delayed the ramp-up of Tengiz to full capacity, according to Reuters. The pipeline’s largest shareholder is Transneft, which earns transit revenue from barrels shipped through the system.
