MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk temporarily suspended oil exports – equivalent to 2.2 million barrels per day, or 2% of global supply – on Friday, according to industry sources, after a Ukrainian missile and drone attack.
The attack was one of the biggest on Russian oil-exporting infrastructure in recent months. It follows a ramping-up of Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries since August, part of an attempt by Kyiv to degrade Moscow’s ability to finance its war.
Global oil prices rallied by more than 2% on supply fears after the attack.
Long-range Ukrainian air and sea drone strikes have repeatedly disrupted Russian oil infrastructure this year, targeting Baltic and Black Sea ports, a trunk pipeline system, and a number of oil refineries.
UKRAINE ALSO FIRES CRUISE MISSILES, ZELENSKIY SAYS
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had fired Neptune cruise missiles and used various types of strike drones in the attack on Novorossiysk “as part of efforts to reduce the military and economic potential of the Russian aggressor”.
Ukraine said it separately struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Saratov region and a fuel storage facility in nearby Engels overnight.
Russian pipeline oil monopoly Transneft has also been forced to suspend supplies to the port of Novorossiysk, the sources told Reuters. The company declined to comment.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports oil from Kazakhstan through the neighbouring Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal, suspended oil loadings for a few hours and then resumed them when the air alert was lifted, sources said.
It plans to export 1.45 million barrels per day this month from the Yuzhnaya Ozereevka terminal, around 15 kilometres (9 miles) southwest of Novorossiysk.
Debris from the drones fell on the terrain of Russian grain terminal NKHP, which was working normally, Interfax news agency reported, citing director general Yury Medvedev.
Russian officials said Friday’s attack had also damaged a docked ship, apartment buildings and an oil depot in Novorossiysk, injuring three of the vessel’s crew members.
Delo, a transport and logistics group, said drone debris had fallen onto a container terminal in Novorossiysk, but that its operations continued as usual.
British maritime security company Ambrey said a crane sustained damage, and so did several containers. It said a non-sanctioned container ship alongside the terminal suffered some collateral damage, while no crew members were injured as they sheltered in a safe muster point within the vessel.
‘NOVOROSSIYSK SUFFERED MOST’
Russian crude oil shipments via Novorossiysk’s Sheskharis terminal totalled 3.22 million tonnes, or 761,000 barrels a day, in October, according to industry sources. For the first 10 months of the year, the figure was 24.716 million tonnes.
The sources told Reuters that a total of 1.794 million tonnes of oil products had been exported through Novorossiysk in October and oil product exports for January-October totalled 16.783 million tonnes.
According to three industry sources, the Ukrainian attack hit two oil berths at Sheskharis. The damage was inflicted on berth 1 and berth 1A, which handle 40,000-deadweight-ton and 140,000-deadweight-ton tankers respectively.
Two of the sources said the Sierra Leone-flagged Arlan oil tanker was also hit during the attack.
“Novorossiysk suffered the most,” Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, where Novorossiysk is located, said on social media.
“Overnight, more than 170 people and 50 pieces of equipment dealt with the aftermath of the attack, quickly extinguishing fires and assisting residents,” he said.
Three injured crew members of the damaged boat were being treated in hospital, Kondratyev said.
Local officials later said that a fire at an oil depot at the Sheskharis terminal, which handles crude oil and oil product exports, had been extinguished.
Coastal structures had also been damaged, they said, without providing details.
The Ukrainian statement said damage was also inflicted on a Russian S-400 air defence system and missile storage facility, causing a detonation and a fire. Reuters could not independently confirm those details.
(Reporting by Reuters, additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv; editing by Mark Heinrich, Susan Fenton and Mark Trevelyan)