Putin’s pipeline: How the Kremlin outmaneuvered Western oil companies to wrest control of vast flows of Kazakhstan’s crude

Chevron and partners prioritized profits, enabling runaway costs and ballooning budgets worth billions as Russia deployed strong-arm tactics and steered contracts to cronies.
On a late August afternoon in 2021 the mooring master made a frantic call to a dispatcher at Russia’s largest port, Novorossiysk.
“Stop! Stop! Stop loading tanker Minerva Symphony!” he shouted.







