Turkey’s Coastal Safety Directorate notified ships heading for Novorossiysk that permit issuance was temporarily suspended and transits needed additional review time, Bloomberg reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter. No reason was given, and Turkish authorities have made no public comment on the move. By Sunday transits had resumed. Bloomberg named the crude tanker Aegean Dream, signalling the CPC terminal as its destination, among the vessels held; a container ship bound for Novorossiysk also waited.
Bloomberg ties the restriction to the run of attacks on merchant shipping in the Black Sea, Turkish-owned vessels among them. On Friday evening, while the hold was already in force, a drone hit the Turkish-flagged dry cargo vessel Gulluk off Novorossiysk; the crew was unharmed, according to Turkish maritime accounts relayed by vz.ru and PortNews, and the Turkish traffic operator attributed the attack to Ukrainian forces. The same account recalls a drone attack on another Turkish vessel, the Nadezhda, near the port on 3 August. Foreign minister Hakan Fidan, speaking about the attacks on shipping, said measures had been prepared and presented to the president: “We are putting them into effect.”
Reuters put independent numbers on July on Friday, citing four industry sources and Kpler data: the CPC system exported about 1.2 to 1.3 million barrels a day, more than 20% below the initial plan, and early August was averaging 1.1 to 1.2 million against a normal 1.6 to 1.7 million. The consortium has still published no July total, and nothing has appeared in its own name since 30 July, twelve days.
The consortium has still published no July total, and nothing has appeared in its own name since 30 July.
There is also, reportedly, a rulebook. Bloomberg, citing a US government official, reported that Ukraine has committed to avoid strikes on CPC infrastructure and on vessels that are not under Ukrainian sanctions, are not carrying Russian cargo and are not owned by Russian entities, and that contact points have been set up where shippers can submit vessel details and confirm safe passage. In the accounts the desk has read, the commitment exists only in that reported form.
The port area itself stayed loud. Novorossiysk declared drone alerts through the weekend, and early on Sunday the mayor reported debris falling on two enterprises, which he did not name, and on a house in the settlement of Verkhnebakansky. No account read by the desk reports damage to the terminal.
Each actor on the route now controls a different valve. Strikes have priced the terminal: chartering a tanker for a CPC run cost $338,000 a day, as we reported on Thursday. Turkey has now shown that the straits are a permission as much as a waterway, withheld for three days on no stated grounds. What to watch this week: whether permits flow at normal tempo, the July total and any statement in the consortium’s own name, and whether the commitment reported from Washington surfaces in any official form.