Ukraine has paused drone strikes on oil tankers using Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk after a request from US Vice President JD Vance, according to the Financial Times.
US Request
The request followed US alarm that Ukraine was destabilising oil markets and harming US firms by targeting tankers carrying crude piped from Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at the port.
Ukraine agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels as long as the latter were not under Ukrainian sanctions and were not carrying Russian oil or cargo.
The White House, State Department and Vance’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Impact on Oil Markets
Ukrainian forces recently stepped up strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and other sites in an effort to deprive Russia of resources to fund its military.
Black Sea drone attacks took out as much as a fifth of CPC oil loadings in July, according to sources familiar with the data.
Kazakhstan, which relies on the CPC route for crude exports, suffered a drop of 14% in oil production in July versus June.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
