“We consider what happened to be an act that harms bilateral relations between Kazakhstan and Ukraine,” the diplomatic institution stated in a statement published Sunday on its official website.

On Saturday, Ukrainian naval drones attacked a CPC oil terminal on the Black Sea, located on the Russian coast. Oil tankers waiting to load Kazakh crude were diverted to other areas.

The Kazakh Foreign Ministry emphasized that it strongly protests the Ukrainian attack against the consortium, the third act of aggression against civilian infrastructure.

“Kazakhstan, as a responsible player in the global energy market, advocates for the stability and continuity of supplies. We emphasize that COC plays a significant role in the stability of the global energy system,” he stated.

COC is a multinational company in which the Russian company Transneft (24 percent), the Kazakh oil company KazMunayGas (19 percent), the American company Chevron (15 percent), the Russian company Lukoil (12.5 percent), the American company Mobil (7.5 percent), the Russian-Dutch company Rosneft-Shell (7.5 percent), the Italian company Eni (2 percent), among others, collaborate.

The 1,500-kilometer COC pipeline connects the giant Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan with the Novorossiysk oil terminal in Russia, on the Black Sea.

With a capacity to transport 83 million tons of crude oil annually, the COC pipeline is the largest export route for Kazakh oil to global markets.

jav/oda/gfa