Chevron tanker used for CPC oil hit by drone in Black Sea

MOSCOW: Chevron’s Yasa Polaris oil tanker, used for Caspian Pipeline Consortium shipments, was attacked by a drone off Russia’s Black Sea coast, two industry sources said on Wednesday. Chevron said on Monday it was aware of an incident with a vessel heading to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s loading facilities near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and the crew was safe, while exports from Kazakhstan were not affected. The Chevron-led Tengizchevroil oil company is the major exporter of CPC Blend oil sourced mainly from a giant Tengiz oil field it operates in Kazakhstan. Yasa Polaris is an oil tanker built in 2022 and able to carry about 160,000 metric tons of oil, according to LSEG data. The vessel is managed by Yasa Holding registered in Turkiye. The shipmanager did not immediately answer a Reuters request for a comment. World food supplies at risk as Russia withdraws from Black Sea deal Ukraine has targeted the CPC oil terminal and vessels carrying oil in the Black Sea area many times since the start of the war in 2022. Last year one of single point moorings at the CPC terminal was heavily damaged in an attack. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium plans to export about 1.6 million barrels per day of CPC Blend crude in July, down from around 1.7 million bpd planned for June after drone damage to a Russian gas facility meant output had to be reduced, two trading sources said.