Exxon-chartered tanker damaged in drone attack near Black Sea oil terminal

MOSCOW: An oil tanker chartered to load crude at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal off Russia’s Black Sea coast was damaged in a two-drone attack on Friday, the pipeline operator said.

Sources said the Suezmax-class Nordic Zenith had been chartered by US oil major ExxonMobil.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium did not identify who was responsible for the attack, which came amid an escalation in Russian and Ukrainian strikes on shipping in the Black and Azov seas.

A fire broke out on the vessel after the attack but was later extinguished. Nearby CPC vessels evacuated 13 crew members, while nine remained on board.

The tanker was removed from the loading schedule and declared unfit for mooring or loading operations at the CPC terminal.

An Exxon spokesperson said the company did not discuss operational details of marine transport and did not own or operate vessels, with shipping handled by independent owners and operators.

The CPC pipeline stretches 1,510 kilometres from Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea oilfields to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, where crude is loaded onto tankers for international markets.

The network handles about 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports. Its operations have faced repeated disruption during the war from attacks on pumping stations in Russia and drone strikes near the Novorossiysk loading terminal.