Oil loadings at Russia’s Black Sea major terminals of Novorissiisk and Yuzhnaya Ozereevka have been suspended over paperwork related to new regulations for tankers’ access to ports, two industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

One of the sources said he expected the situation to be resolved in a day or two.

The suspension will add to uncertainty in the Mediterranean oil markets, which are jittery following a contamination scare which led to delayed loadings of Azeri BTC crude oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan in recent days.

Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports oil via Russia’s Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal, and Russia’s ministry of transport declined to comment.

President Vladimir Putin signed on Monday a law which said the foreign ships will require the approval of Russia’s FSB security service to access the country’s ports.

The decree said that permission from port authorities for foreign ships to enter would need to be agreed with the FSB, which is the main successor organisation to the Soviet-era KGB. The new measures came into force immediately after the decree was published on Monday.

Black Sea CPC Blend oil exports from the terminal in Russia were set at 1.66 million barrels per day for August, or about 6.5 million metric tons, almost unchanged from the July export plan.

Exports and oil transit via Novorossisk are seen around 2.2 million metric tons in July, according to industry sources.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)