Russia court allows CPC to keep exporting oil to Europe

A Russian court allowed a crucial export route for Kazakh oil to keep operating, throwing out an order from a lower authority for a 30-day halt.

After hearing an appeal from the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, the Krasnodar regional court canceled the order and imposed a 200,000-ruble ($3,200) fine instead, a relief for a market that’s been roiled by upended trade flows from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

A lower court in Novorossiysk last week instructed the CPC terminal on Russia’s Black Sea coast to suspend shipments due to alleged violations of an oil-spill prevention plan. The operator of the facility, which is due to load 1.24 million barrels a day this month, warned that an immediate shutdown “could result in irreversible consequences for its operations.”

Currently crude shipments via the CPC and Chevron-led Tengizchevroil’s production operations “remain uninterrupted,” Sally Jones, spokeswoman of the venture, said in a separate statement. Chevron is the largest private shareholder in the CPC, holding 15% in the consortium.

The CPC is working to eliminate any violations of the spill-prevention plan as soon as possible, its press office said in a statement following Monday’s ruling.