Ukrainian attacks on Kazakh oil: the new front in the energy war with Russia (and the interests of the American Chevron)

There is a parallel war being fought between Russia and Ukraine, the one against energy infrastructure. But it is a war that is also having repercussions on the oil majors operating in Kazakhstan, a country rich in crude oil, with reserves estimated at over 30 billion barrels. The warmest front is on the Black Sea, but the objectives are not only in Russian territory. The last target hit, in terms of time, was the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) marine terminal on the Caspian Seawhich has among its shareholders the private Russian company Lukoil, the state-owned Kazakh KazMunayGas and the US Chevron ed ExxonMobilhit by Ukrainian drones at the end of December.

The oil pipeline to Russia

The terminal from Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) is the loading point for oil from Kazakh fields managed by the oil majors US Chevron, Exxon Mobil and European Eni and Shell. From here the crude oil arrives at the Russian terminal of Yuzhnaya Ozereevka next to the port of Novorossiysk in Russia. A Reuters source reports that Oil exports from Kazakhstan through the CPC terminal fell by 19% so far in December compared to the November average, coming in at 1.082 million barrels per day.

Chevron’s interests

But it is in particular, l’americana Chevronthe only company authorized by Donald Trump to export crude oil from Venezuela, has been operating in Kazakhstan since the 1990s, suffering the greatest repercussions: in January it started the expansion of the Tengiz field, the second largest in Kazakhstan, with investments of 48 billion dollars. The objective was to increase production to around 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, but due to the Ukrainian attacks, extraction from the Tengiz wells operated by Chevron is decreasing.

The attacks on the Black Sea

From the CPC terminal, 80% of Kazakh oil exports leave via a 1,500 kilometer long pipeline (approximately 68.6 million tonnes in 2024), which represents over 1% of global crude oil production. The CPC also exports a small amount of Russian oil. Crude oil arrives at the Russian Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal next to the port of Novorossiysk in Russia. This same terminal had been the subject of drone attacks in late November which damaged a pier. Yuzhnaya Ozereevka is a town located in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, near the city of Novorossiysk, an important port on the Black Sea. On November 29, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) claimed the attack on two oil tankers part of the Russian shadow fleet in the Black SeaKairo and Virat.

The target of refineries and oil tankers

Since last August, Ukraine has intensified attacks attacks against refineries and other strategic energy infrastructure in Russia, in an attempt to reduce Moscow’s oil revenues, a major source of financing for the invasion launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.
Lo The General Staff of the Ukrainian army announced on December 28 that it had struck the Syzran oil refinery during the nightin the Russian region of Samara, with a drone attack. The refinery is involved in supplying the Russian armed forces. The Syzran oil refinery is located about 700 kilometers from the border between Russia and Ukraine. Opened in 1942, the facility belongs to Russian state oil giant Rosneft and has an annual processing capacity of 7-8.9 million tonnes of oil.

December 30, 2025

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