US calls on Ukraine to Halt Strikes on Caspian Pipeline Consortium

The US government officially warned Ukraine against carrying out further military strikes on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s oil terminal in the Russian Black Sea port city of Novorossiysk, citing US-Kazakhstan energy partnership, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the US Olga Stefanishyna said on February 24.

The CPC, a partnership between Kazakhstan’s state-owned Kazmunaigas, and several major US energy companies, including Chevron and Exxon, accounts for about 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports, despite the country’s long-standing efforts to diversify its export routes.

The pipeline is not subject to international sanctions despite its main export route running through Russian territory to Novorossiysk. It also allows for the export of a limited volume of Russian crude alongside Kazakhstan’s shipments.

In late November, a Ukrainian drone attack seriously damaged the CPC’s maritime infrastructure, taking it temporarily offline and causing Kazakhstan’s overall oil production to fall by 480,000 tons, the country’s ministry of energy said on December 11.

According to Stefanishyna, the State Department specifically cited “American investments which are being performed through Kazakhstan” in its formal demarche, which was delivered to the Ukrainian government in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

“We have heard from the Department of State that we should refrain from attacking American interests,” Stefanishyna said, adding that the request did not entail Kyiv halting attacks on “Russian military and energy infrastructure” more generally.

“We have taken note of that,” she added.

According to Reuters and Bloomberg, the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the incident.

The White House’s official complaint comes days after Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev traveled to Washington to take part in the inaugural meeting of the US-led Board of Peace, where he expressed Kazakhstan’s willingness to help rebuild the Gaza Strip, and proposed establishing a peace prize in honor of US President Donald Trump.

Ukraine’s November strikes on the CPC pipeline caused something of a diplomatic incident, with Kazakhstan’s ministry of foreign affairs issuing a formal protest over the attack, citing the importance of protecting “exclusively civilian” infrastructure under the “norms of international law”.

In response, Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs stressed the attacks were only intended to reduce Russia’s military capabilities, and pointed out the previous absence of any Kazakhstani statements regarding Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilians, housing, energy, or other civilian infrastructure.

Sign up for our English-language newsletter.