CPC oil terminal shows signs of restart after nine months offline

An oil tanker has docked at a loading buoy at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal that has been out of service for nearly nine months, suggesting the facility handling 80% of Kazakhstan's crude exports may be resuming operations.

Satellite images from Planet Labs show a vessel moored at Single Point Mooring 2 at the end of last week, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. SPM 2 is one of three offshore loading facilities at the CPC terminal on Russia's Black Sea coast near Novorossiysk. The buoy was severely damaged by a Ukrainian drone attack in late November 2025 and has not loaded a cargo since.bloomberg+1

Testing Phase Underway

The tanker — the first to dock at SPM 2 since November — could indicate that final tests are underway before the mooring resumes commercial loading, according to Bloomberg. A tanker is normally required to flush all lines to a loading buoy before operations can restart. CPC declined to comment on the development.finance.yahoo

In May, CPC began a planned replacement of SPM 2, which had been in operation since 2001 and was already scheduled for renewal before the drone strike accelerated the timeline.finance.yahoo

Disruptions Have Weighed on Exports

The prolonged outage at SPM 2, combined with repeated drone attacks on tankers in July, has taken a measurable toll on CPC throughput. Oil shipments through the system fell 7.4% in the first half of 2026 to 33.3 million tonnes, down from 36 million tonnes in the same period of 2025, according to Kazakhstan's state oil company KazMunayGas. Drone attacks in July alone cut CPC oil loadings by more than 20%.businessupturn+1

The disruptions have rippled through Kazakhstan's major oil fields. Tengiz production fell 14.7% in the first half due to CPC intake restrictions, while Karachaganak oil and condensate output dropped 12.9%.turkiyetoday

Security Concerns Persist

Even as SPM 2 shows signs of returning to service, the security situation around the terminal remains precarious. On August 14, a drone attack forced the nearby Sheskharis terminal at Novorossiysk to suspend crude loadings, with operations resuming on August 17. CPC has described the attacks on civilian tankers as terrorist attacks and called for measures to protect export infrastructure.businessupturn+1

The terminal normally loads crude at two moorings simultaneously, each with a capacity of 800,000 barrels per day. More than 70% of CPC cargoes are shipped to European refineries already grappling with restricted oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Whether the tanker's arrival marks a genuine restart or another brief pause in an increasingly fragile export route will depend on whether additional vessels follow in the coming days.finance.yahoo+1