Incident cuts loading capacity at Kazakhstan’s main export route

An incident that occurred during tanker loading has caused an oil spill and taken one of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's offshore loading buoys offline, the pipeline operator said on Aug. 29.

CPC is Kazakhstan's main oil export route and also ships some Russian volumes via the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk.

The incident comes as another of the loading buoys, known as single-point mooring devices, is offline for planned maintenance. This began on Aug. 15 and is expected to take three weeks to complete.

Kazakh officials have said that two loading buoys are sufficient to meet its export plans, but it is unclear how only one being operational will affect loadings. Deliveries have increased via the route in 2025 after a Tengiz expansion project was launched in January.

This has put Kazakhstan at odds with its OPEC+ allies, as it has consistently produced well above its quota under the agreement.

Kazakhstan had already suspended exports by an alternative supply route – the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, after an organic chloride contamination was detected on the route in July. Kazakhstan said previously that it plans to increase supplies via this route in 2025 to 1.7 million mt, or around 35,000 b/d in 2025, up from 1.4 million mt in 2024.

A clean-up operation is underway and an investigation is being carried out into the size of the spill and the cause of the incident. CPC said there is no threat of fire and there were no casualties.