Oil exports from Russia's ports on the Black Sea remained disrupted on Wednesday as shipping continues to be restricted due to a storm in the region.
Bad weather conditions persevere in the Black Sea and restrictions will remain in place until the weather improves, Russia's Transport Ministry said on Wednesday.
The storm has disrupted up to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil exports from Kazakhstan and Russia, according to data from state officials and port agents cited by Reuters.
Earlier this week, crude oil loadings at key Black Sea ports in Russia and Ukraine continued to be halted amid a raging storm that has left an estimated two million people without power.
The regional storm has affected the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) oil terminal on Russia's portion of the Black Sea, and it has also halted loadings at the Novorossiysk facilities. According to the CPC, waves of up to eight meters high were ravaging the region on Monday morning.
The consortium said on Monday that oil lifting from the marine terminal at Novorossiysk was suspended until further notice, due to "extremely unfavorable weather conditions."
CPC's tank farms at the port area are virtually full, so crude oil is accepted from shippers at lower flow rates, the consortium said.
The CPC oil terminal has forced a reduction in Kazakhstan's oil production, which feeds this terminal as the terminal is already at near-full capacity.
As a result, as of early Monday morning, Kazakhstan's oil output dropped by 15% over the course of the previous 24 hours, according to Bloomberg.
Before this week's weather advisories and restricted shipment at Black Sea ports, weekly crude oil shipments out of Russia rebounded in the week to November 26, rising by around 370,000 bpd from the previous week, just before a crucial OPEC+ meeting this week, tanker-tracking data monitored by Bloomberg showed on Tuesday.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More