A drone attack on a major pumping station of a pipeline in southern Russia on Monday disrupted crude oil flows from Kazakhstan, the operator of the pipeline said.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) operates a pipeline that runs from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to the Novorossiysk port on Russia’s Black Sea coast and carries 80% of Kazakh crude exports.

CPC, whose largest shareholder is Russia with 24%, said today that the Kropotkinskaya pumping station of the crude oil transportation facility was subject to a drone attack.

“The terrorist strike was delivered using seven unmanned aerial vehicles loaded in addition to explosives with shrapnel. The attack was timed, aiming to not only disrupt service of the facility but also cause casualties among the station’s operations personnel,” CPC said in a statement.

The company, however, noted that there were no injuries to the personnel at the pumping station and the response team managed to prevent a possible oil spill.

PS Kropotkinskaya, located in the Kavkazsky District of Kuban is the largest CPC station in Russia.

After the attack, Kropotkinskaya was taken out of service, and crude transportation through the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system is being maintained at reduced flow rates, bypassing the attacked pumping station, CPC said.

The Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline, which is 1,511 km (939 miles) long, transports over two-thirds of all Kazakh export oil, and crude from Russian oil fields.

Chevron has just started up oil production at an expansion project at Tengiz, the largest oilfield in Kazakhstan, which will boost crude oil output by 260,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Kazakhstan’s oil exports via Russian infrastructure and passing through Russian territory are not subject to Western sanctions on Russia’s oil exports.

The drone attack comes as the United States and Russia prepare to hold talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, without the participation of Ukraine.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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