Photo: Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry Press Service
Kazakhstan will discuss the drone attack on a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) facility with Ukraine, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aibek Smadiyarov announced on February 19, according to KazTAG.
«This is a very important issue for Kazakhstan’s economy, and naturally, we will discuss this situation with our Ukrainian partners through diplomatic channels,» the agency quoted the official as saying.
Earlier, Kazakhstan’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Akan Rakhmetullin told Infomburo.kz that talks with the Ukrainian side are planned either in Astana or Kyiv. According to him, such matters should be resolved through diplomacy to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The 1,500-kilometer CPC pipeline system connects Kazakhstan’s western oil fields to the marine terminal in Novorossiysk and is a key export route for the country’s crude. On February 17, the system’s largest oil pumping station, Kropotkinskaya, located in Russia’s Krasnodar region, was attacked by seven Ukrainian drones, sustaining severe damage and being taken offline.
Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case over the attack. Transneft, Russia’s state-owned company and a CPC shareholder, later reported that the station suffered serious damage, with repairs expected to take up to two months. During this period, Kazakhstan’s oil exports through the CPC pipeline could be reduced by 30%.
