Ukraine drones hit Black Sea oil terminal, Russia claims

Russia said Ukrainian drones had attacked a Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which handles 1.5 per cent of the world’s oil supply. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the single-berth system, loading infrastructure and four large storage tanks were damaged.

The strike could be one of the most significant attacks on Russian export facilities in the Black Sea in more than four years of war. Ukraine did not immediately comment and the information could not be independently verified. CPC declined to comment.

The Yuzhnaya Ozereyevka terminal is used to export crude oil from Kazakhstan. Its shareholders include Chevron and ExxonMobil. According to the Russian ministry, the attack was aimed at causing economic damage to the companies.

The terminal, southwest of Novorossiysk, accounts for 80 per cent of Kazakhstan’s oil exports.

At the same time, industry sources said a fire also broke out overnight at Russia’s Sheshkharis terminal, about 15 kilometres from the CPC facility. The fire affected Transneft’s main jetty in an area covering several berths. The extent of the damage to loading operations was not immediately clear and Transneft did not comment.

The Sheshkharis terminal normally handles 600,000 to 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day. It exported 19.8 million tonnes of petroleum products last year.

(reuters, max)