Spill Temporarily Shuts Down a Tanker Mooring at the CPC Terminal

 

A spill has been reported at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium offshore loading terminal near Novorossiysk, Russia, but accounts of its size and significance vary. 

On August 29, petroleum was released during loading operations at one of the CPC terminal's offshore mooring buoys (SPMs). Satellite imaging released by dissident news outlet Crimean Wind appears to suggest a slick measuring about 21 kilometers in length, extending eastward from the #2 SPM at the CPC site. The publication estimated the size of the release at 5-10 tonnes, equivalent to about 1,500-3,000 gallons.  

In a statement, the CPC operating consortium said that cleanup had been completed by August 30, and that post-remediation monitoring of air and water detected no excess in pollutant values. No shoreline contamination has been identified, and no sorbents were used for cleanup. Seawater monitoring continues on a twice-daily basis, using a third party laboratory; the total volume of the oil release has not been confirmed by the operator and remains under investigation. 

One of the terminal's SPMs was shut down after the spill, temporarily leaving only one mooring operational out of three. 

The CPC terminal is one of the world's most important oil facilities, handling more than one percent of the global crude supply. Though the loading port is located in Russia, little of the oil shipped through it is of Russian origin, as the pipeline's crude is produced in Kazakhstan by Western oil companies. Nonetheless, it has occasionally been affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine, including a drone strike attributed to Ukrainian forces in February.