Chevron ‘assessing’ status of Russian terminal, says oil pipeline operating

HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. oil producer Chevron on Wednesday said it is assessing the status of a export terminal at a Black Sea port that Russia said was affected by storm damage, but the pipeline to the port and its Kazakhstan output is currently unaffected.

Chevron holds a 15% stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which owns a 1,510-kilometer pipeline that carries about 1.2% of the world’s oil from oilfields in Kazakhstan to an export terminal in Russia.

The company’s Tengizchevroil (TCO) joint venture oil production in Kazakhstan that relies on the terminal “continues uninterrupted, and transportation of TCO crude oil through the CPC pipeline is also continuing at this time,” a Chevron spokesperson said.

The pipeline is effectively under Russia’s control as it crosses Russian territory and has loading facilities on Russia’s Black Sea coast. On Wednesday, shipping agents said all CPC loadings have been suspended because of storm damage at the terminal. [nL5N2VQ3PH]

The U.S. has not sanctioned the pipeline, but it has been caught up in sanctions against Russia as buyers avoid its oil because of its mixture of Kazak and Russian crudes and loadings from the terminal at Russia’s Novorossiysk port.

(Reporting by Gary McWilliams and Sabrina Valle in Houston)