Drone Hits Chevron-Chartered Tanker Near Novorossiysk; Kazakh CPC Oil Exports Unaffected

The tanker Yasa Polaris, chartered by Chevron to carry shipments for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), was struck by a drone on July 7, 2026 (16 Tir 1405) near the CPC marine terminal off Russia's Black Sea coast, close to the port of Novorossiysk. The vessel, with a capacity of about 160,000 tonnes, was carrying no cargo at the time. Chevron said the crew is safe and no visible hull damage or oil pollution has been reported. The company said the incident has not disrupted Kazakhstan's oil exports. The CPC pipeline carries about 80 percent of Kazakhstan's oil exports and is scheduled to ship around 1.6 million barrels per day of CPC Blend crude in July, down from a planned 1.7 million bpd in June after earlier drone damage to a Russian gas facility forced output cuts.