The Suezmax Skiros, Liberian-flagged and managed by Greece’s IMS, was struck by a drone at midday on Monday near Novorossiysk, by Bloomberg’s account. The crew contained a small fire; nobody was hurt. Ship-tracking data showed the vessel’s destination as the CPC terminal, while Bloomberg reported that the tanker had loaded a Russian cargo. The Moscow Times, relaying the Greek press, joined the two records outright: Russian oil, loaded at the CPC terminal. The accounts differ, and the difference is the whole question.
The stakes were set a month ago. The Financial Times has reported that Washington asked Kyiv in late July to stop striking tankers near Novorossiysk, to keep Kazakh oil moving through the CPC. Bloomberg, citing a US official, earlier reported that Ukraine committed to spare CPC infrastructure and foreign tankers that are neither sanctioned nor carrying Russian oil. On that reported map everything depends on the manifest: a CPC-bound tanker is spared, one loaded with Russian crude is fair game. A ship answering both descriptions gets decided at the moment an operator reads a track, and drones read no manifests.
The bulk carrier Anna S never got to load anything. 5 drones hit the Liberian-flagged ship about 40 km from Novorossiysk as it sailed in to take on grain, a day after the Skiros was struck, the Greek daily Proto Thema reported. The vessel burned out almost completely; whether it was still afloat was unclear as of Tuesday evening’s reports. All 21 crew, 20 Filipino sailors and a Romanian captain, were taken off unharmed.
A ship answering both descriptions gets decided at the moment an operator reads a track, and drones read no manifests.
The grain leg matters on its own. All 3 of Novorossiysk’s major grain terminals were reported halted after the 12 August strike, 26.1 million tonnes of annual capacity between them, and no dated statement on their status has surfaced since 14 August. A ship burned on its way to load grain answers part of that question from the water.
The oil side of the restart is meanwhile half-confirmed. Reuters’ sources described one Suezmax loading Kazakhstan’s KEBCO grade on Sunday and sailing on Monday, with a second tanker due to start on 80,000 tonnes on Tuesday. No confirmation of that second loading has surfaced in the wires read on Wednesday morning. No statement under the consortium’s own name has surfaced in the wires since 30 July, and the tanker Aegean Dream, dark since 10 August with a destination field reading CPC terminal, has yet to produce a position report that survives a cross-check between trackers.