Reuters: Drones hit three Greek tankers carrying oil near Novorossiysk

On January 13, three tankers operated by Greek companies were attacked by unknown drones in the Black Sea, near the Russian coast, as they were heading to load oil at the terminal of the international Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), Reuters reported, citing eight interlocutors.

It is not yet known who is behind this attack. Ukraine has not commented on this. At the same time, the CTC declined to comment.

Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said that the consortium continues to export oil through the same wharf.

One of the aforementioned vessels, Delta Harmony, is operated by the Greek company Delta Tankers. According to the sources, the ship was supposed to load Kazakh oil from Tengizchevroil, a joint venture between the US Chevron (which owns 50% of the company) and ExxonMobil (25%), as well as Kazakhstan's Kazmunaigas (20%) and Russia's Lukoil (5%).

The other tanker, Matilda, is operated by the Greek company Thenamaris and was supposed to load oil from Kazakhstan's Karachaganak field, the interlocutors added.

A representative of Thenamaris confirmed that the ship was hit by two drones while it was waiting to be loaded at a distance of about 50 kilometers from the KTC terminal.

"There were no injuries and the ship suffered minor damage to deck structures according to an initial assessment, which is fully repairable. The ship, seaworthy as it is, is now sailing away from the area," the company official said.

Delta Tankers did not respond to the media's request for comment.

Two maritime security sources said that a fire reportedly broke out on board the vessel, which was quickly extinguished.

Two other oil tankers, the Freud, operated by the Greek company TMS, and the Delta Supreme, operated by Delta Tankers, were also hit by drones near the consortium's terminal, three sources said.

RECENTLY. Later, Reuters reported that TMS denied that its Freud vessel had been hit. Accordingly, the media is now reporting a drone attack on three rather than four ships.

The CPC pipeline transports oil to a terminal in the town of Yuzhnaya Ozereevka on the Black Sea, near Novorossiysk in the Russian Federation.

At the end of November was affected one of the three main berths of the consortium, which led to a drop in oil exports and production in Kazakhstan.

The country's oil and gas condensate production fell by 35% from January 1-12 compared to the December average, a person familiar with the data said, mainly due to restrictions on exports through a terminal on the Black Sea.

• Meanwhile, on the night of January 13, the Defense Forces struck a drone manufacturing company in the Rostov region of Russia and some targets in the temporarily occupied territories.