US Vice President Asks Ukrainian President to Stop Attacking CPC Oil Facilities

JAKARTA - Vice President of the United States (US) JD Vance reportedly asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to stop attacking the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) facility in the Black Sea.

This news was reported by the Financial Times, citing US and Ukrainian officials.

Last week Bloomberg reported that at the request of the US, Ukraine agreed to stop attacks on non-Russian tankers and CPC facilities in the Black Sea used for oil shipments from Kazakhstan.

According to a Financial Times source, Vance conveyed the request to Zelenskyy in a telephone conversation on July 31. Since then, Kiev has not attacked oil tankers near the CPC terminal.

"We listen very carefully to our American partners," a senior unnamed Ukrainian official told the newspaper, as reported by Sputnik, Wednesday, August 12.

The US is reportedly concerned about Ukraine's actions because the attacks disrupt oil market stability and harm US companies involved in oil shipments from Kazakhstan.

Kiev reportedly agreed to stop attacking CPC infrastructure and non-Russian tankers on the condition that the ships were not sanctioned by Ukraine and did not transport Russian oil.

On July 19, two tankers were targeted by drone attacks at the CPC maritime terminal in the Black Sea. The ships, which were sailing under the flags of Liberia (ASIA) and the Marshall Islands (NISSOS IOS), had international crews, CPC said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine of trying to inflict irreparable damage on the consortium. The ministry called the attack on civilian vessels at the CPC terminal an attack on the interests of the consortium's participating countries.

"Kiev does not care about the economic losses inflicted on the US and Europe and does not show concern for its partners, including Kazakhstan," the ministry said.

Russia called on the international community to condemn Kiev's attack on the tankers.

CPC is a consortium of energy companies and an oil pipeline along 1,511 kilometers. This pipeline transports crude oil from major oil fields in Kazakhstan (such as Tengiz) to a maritime terminal in Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, Russia, to be exported to world markets.

This pipeline supplies about 80 percent of Kazakhstan's total crude oil exports and carries about one percent of the world's total crude oil demand or supply.