ALMATY, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Two oil tankers came under drone attack at and near the marine terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) in the Black Sea overnight, the company said Thursday.
At 1:48 a.m. Moscow time (2248 GMT Wednesday), an oil tanker was attacked while loading oil at one of the terminal's offshore loading facilities, the CPC wrote on social media.
A fire broke out on the cargo deck but was extinguished, with no casualties reported. Oil loading operations have been suspended while the pipeline's facilities continue to operate normally, the company said.
Another oil tanker came under attack about six nautical miles from the terminal as it approached the terminal to load oil, the CPC added.
The company said that repeated calls by Kazakhstan and the consortium's foreign shareholders to refrain from targeting international energy infrastructure were ignored. The CPC warned that such incidents pose risks to global energy security and disrupt international energy trade.
The company resumed oil loading operations on Monday after suspending them following a series of drone attacks on civilian tankers near the terminal on July 17, 19 and 20.
The CPC's 1,511-km-long pipeline connects oil fields in western Kazakhstan and offshore oil fields in Russia's Caspian region with a marine terminal in Novorossiysk, serving as the main export route for Kazakh oil. ■