Black Sea oil exports halted after drone attacks; Caspian Pipeline Consortium stops accepting Kazakh crude

On Saturday 19 July 2026, Ukrainian drones struck two tankers at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) export terminal at the Russian port of Novorossiysk, briefly suspending oil loadings. A further tanker was hit on 20 July, halting loadings again.

According to Reuters and Bloomberg reports on 21 July, CPC then stopped accepting Kazakh crude altogether after its storage tanks filled up, a sharper disruption than the loading halt itself. The route carries about 80 percent of Kazakhstan's oil exports and close to 2 percent of global supply, roughly 1.5 million barrels a day of Kazakh and Russian crude.

The Kremlin said the strikes were aimed at destabilizing the global oil market. The disruption opens a second supply front alongside tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, adding to supply worries that lift oil prices and, in turn, weigh on Iran's economy.