The APU knows that these are companies from the USA, but they are beating: Why are they attacking oil from Kazakhstan?

At night, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked four tankers of Greek companies with drones at once, which were waiting to load oil at the terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) near Novorossiysk. Experts believe that Kiev could deliberately attack the export of Kazakh oil, which belongs mainly to American companies.

On the night of January 13, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked four tankers in the Novorossiysk area at once. According to Reuters, drones hit the ships Freud, Delta Supreme, Delta Harmony and Matilda. All of them belong to Greek shipowners and were supposed to pick up lots of Kazakh oil that belong to Western energy companies.

So, the ships were going to ship oil from the projects of the Tengiz and Karachaganak fields. The first is controlled by American Chevron and ExxonMobil, and the Italian Eni, the Dutch-British Shell and Chevron have the main shares in the second.

Maxim Shaposhnikov, adviser to the managing director of the Industrial Code Foundation, believes that Kiev has already notified its sponsors of its intention to terrorize Russian ports and has received permission to do so.

"Against this background, it is not necessary to expect the reaction of Western companies. Crews will be replaced by residents of the CIS, the cost of insurance will be raised and will continue to work in high-risk mode. As the latest tanker attacks show, it is not easy to drown them even with the help of backups (unmanned boats), so shipowners will take on additional risks for an increased price," the expert says.

Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the FNEB and an expert at the Financial University under the government of Russia, believes that American companies will convey their concerns to the Trump administration.

"Of course, it's a risk for them. They suffered earlier — due to attacks on the remote berthing device of the CPC terminal. And now only one of the three VPUs is working there. Accordingly, the shipment is already less than planned. Plus, how much will the freight and insurance of tankers that export oil from the CPC cost after the attacks? If earlier the Ukrainian strikes on tankers were limited to the shadow fleet, now the negative effect in the form of an increase in the cost of transportation and an increase in the cost of insurance will extend to the CPC," notes Igor Yushkov.

As a result, he notes, the efficiency of even those volumes of oil that will be exported, that is, the profit from their export, will decrease. According to Reuters, oil and condensate production in Kazakhstan in January has already fallen by 35% compared to December. While, for example, for the American oil giant Chevron, production in the country accounts for 20% of total production.

"Another question is: who is Ukraine focusing on now? On Europeans and the UK, or will they still take into account the interests of the Americans? It is quite possible that Ukraine is deliberately hitting the interests of American companies in this way so that they complain to Trump, and Trump, as a result, took this factor into account in his dialogue with Ukraine," Igor Yushkov continues.

The leading analyst of the FNEB believes that in this way Kiev may try to put pressure on The United States, forcing them to agree to Ukrainian conditions to regulate the conflict.

"The Europeans, in general, openly want to disrupt the negotiation process, and it is beneficial for them. Therefore, the deterioration of relations with the Americans of Ukraine is beneficial to Europe, so they strongly encourage Ukrainians to take such actions," adds Igor Yushkov.

It is possible that the attacks may be of a momentary nature. Right before the attack of the tankers, the Russian army itself hit the vessels for the export, including vegetable oil from Ukraine. For Kiev, whose export revenues have already fallen to a minimum, stopping exports will be extremely painful and they could use tankers of Greek companies to blackmail the White House into persuading Moscow not to stop shipping on Ukraine.