Black Sea Storm Halts Oil and Grain Ports in Russia, Ukraine

By Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) —

A Black Sea storm halted loadings of crude and grains from key ports in Russia and Ukraine and left more than a million people across the region without power.

The oil terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium on Russia’s Black Sea coast and the nearby Novorossiysk facility temporarily stopped crude loadings because of the storm, their operators said in separate statements Monday.

The storm is expected to last most of this week, according to Russia’s oil-pipeline operator Transneft PJSC. Winds estimated to be as strong as 40 meters per second (90 miles per hour) were expected to continue on Monday, forcing authorities in Russian-occupied Crimea to declare it a non-working day and leaving half a million people without power. Heavy snow also hit southern and central Ukraine.

A break in the storm may allow Novorossiysk terminal to temporarily resume loadings on Tuesday, according to operator Transneft.

With crude reservoirs at CPC’s terminal nearly full, it has only been accepting oil at a reduced rate. Kazakhstan, which uses CPC for the bulk of its seaborne crude exports, has been forced to cut production. The central Asian nation’s oil output on Nov. 26 dropped to 214,500 tons, or around 1.57 million barrels, a day, down more than 15% on the day before, according to the energy ministry. 

Grain Halted

The storm has also affected the Kerch strait, which connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea and is key for Russia’s grain exports. Transhipment of cargoes has been halted and a storm alert remains in place, Russia’s Federal River and Marine Transportation Agency said in a Telegram post. 

Wind speeds are expected to ease from an estimated 23 to 28 meters per second in the first half of the day, to 15 to 20 meters a second in the second half, the agency said, citing the outlook of Russia’s service for hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring.

Shipments from Ukraine’s greater Odesa ports via the Black Sea have been halted due to the weather, according to people in the sector familiar with the matter. Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Power Outages

Other areas of Ukraine and southern Russia were also affected. A total of about 1.2 million people remained without power in Russia’s Dagestan, Krasnodar and Rostov regions, as well as in Crimea and the territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that Russia occupies, Russian news wires reported, citing Deputy Energy Minister Evgeny Grabchak.

Ukraine said thousands of people had been affected.

Ukraine’s state emergency service reported that heavy snow had forced the closure of main roads in the southern Odesa and Mykolayiv regions. Some 2,046 towns and villages in Ukraine lost electricity, according to the national grid.

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