Storm Clouds In the Black Sea

CPC pipeline outage further complicates European oil balances

On Tuesday, 22 March 2022, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) announced that a diver examination of the Single Point Mooring (SPM) equipment at the marine terminal near Novorossiysk in the Black Sea revealed storm damage to two of the three SPM’s, leading to the temporary decommissioning of all three SPMs.  As of Friday, March 25, 2022, the damaged SPM-2 and SPM-3 remain out, while the third loading buoy, SPM-1, which was offline in September 2021 for repairs, is expected to resume operations.  Repairs to SPM-2 and 3 could take several weeks to complete.

Until that time, output from the CPC will be significantly curtailed.  Crude oil shipments from the Black Sea were already challenged due to the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.  This will further restrict output in a global oil market that was already very tight.  For the tanker market this is more unwelcome news.

To read the full article, click here.