Ukrainian drones spark fire at Russian oil terminal
The Ukrainian army announced that Russia hit the oil loading facilities at the Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk.
The Ukrainian general staff said in the Telegram application that the attack caused a huge fire.
Industry sources had previously said that a drone attack in Ukraine caused a fire at the oil terminal in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
Ukraine has intensified air strikes against Russia’s energy infrastructure, including ports, in an attempt to reduce Russia’s revenues from the sale of oil, the lifeblood of the economy.
According to sources, the fire engulfed the main dock of Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly Transneft near berths 1, 1a and 2.
According to sources, berth number 1 can handle tankers with a dead weight of up to 250,000 metric tons, while berth 2 can load tankers with a dead weight of up to 90,000 tons.
The impact of the attack on loading operations was not immediately clear.
Transneft did not respond to a request for comment.
Separately, Russian officials said on Monday that Ukrainian drones attacked the Caspian Pipeline Consortium’s Black Sea terminal, which handles 1.5 percent of global oil supply, damaging single-point mooring (SPM), loading infrastructure and four large storage tanks.
Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment and Reuters could not independently verify the Russian defense ministry’s statement.
CPC declined to comment.
Russia’s defense ministry said Ukraine attacked the CCP’s loading facilities with aerial drones.
CPC’s Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal exports oil from Kazakhstan and its shareholders include Chevron and Exxon Mobil.
“The Kiev regime deliberately attacked the facilities of the international oil transportation company Caspian Pipeline Consortium in order to inflict maximum economic damage on its largest shareholders, the US and Kazakhstan energy companies,” the defense ministry said in a statement. The statement was included.
The CPC terminal, located in the southwest of Novorossiysk, handles 80 percent of Kazakhstan’s crude oil exports.
