A Russian court has ordered a 30-day shutdown of the Russian Black Sea oil terminal used to process exports from Kazakhstan.

The court said the stoppage was necessary to prevent possible environmental damage, news agency Interfax reported late on Tuesday.

Kazakhstan, Russia’s Central Asian neighbour and an ex-Soviet republic, had butted heads with Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev recently offered to supply the European Union with more oil and gas to offset reduced deliveries from Russia.

The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) that operates the terminal said Wednesday that it was forced to impose the court’s ruling” but planned to appeal against it.

An inspection by Russian authorities found that documentation for emergency plans to deal with oil spills was incomplete, CPC said.

The authorities initially gave the CPC until November 30, to correct the violations, but the regional transport regulator unexpectedly demanded the terminal’s closure on Tuesday, which the court approved.

Some 80 per cent of Kazakhstan’s oil exports flowed through the terminal in Russia’s southern port city Novorossiysk.

The terminal could transport 67 million tons of oil annually. 

(dpa/NAN)