Key Russian oil terminal shuts down after drone attack, Reuters reports

Impact of the strike and the situation at the port

According to the outlet, the Sheskharis oil terminal is Russia’s main facility for shipping crude oil through the Black Sea, with a capacity of around 700,000 barrels per day.

Disruptions at the terminal are causing significant disruption along one of Russia’s key export routes.

Following an attempted drone attack, a tanker scheduled to load at the port was forced to head out to open sea. Meanwhile, the Novorossiysk authorities issued a new warning to residents over the threat of drone attacks.

The port infrastructure in Novorossiysk is used to export Russian Urals crude, Kazakh KEBCO crude and Siberian Light crude.

The shutdown came after a period of strong export volumes, Reuters says. In July, exports from the port reached nearly 1 million barrels per day, while in June they stood at around 800,000 barrels per day.

Systematic strikes on Russian exports

Strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure have significantly increased pressure on its logistics. This is not the first such incident in recent weeks.

Last month, drone attacks halted operations at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal near Novorossiysk. This reduced supplies of CPC Blend crude to major buyers, including Türkiye.

In addition, a Russian oil tanker was damaged during previous attacks near Novorossiysk.

Strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure

As previously reported, disruptions to exports following Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian Black Sea terminals prompted Türkiye to cut its purchases of oil from Russian ports in July and prepare to reduce supplies further in August.

In addition, since the beginning of August alone, Ukrainian drones have attacked nearly one-third of Russia’s major oil refineries. Most of these refineries had already come under attack earlier this year.