MOSCOW (Reuters) – A drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiisk early on Friday hit the Importpischeprom oil products terminal and Sheskharis oil harbour, sources said and video shared on social media showed.
The port was shut soon after attack but later resumed oil loadings from Sheskharis oil harbour and fuel oil terminal, according to industry sources and LSEG data.
Oil products loadings from Importpischeprom oil products terminal in Novorossiisk are still suspended, the sources said.
Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft did not reply to a request for comment. Its subsidiary, Novorossiisk Commercial Sea Port Group (NCSP), which operates the Sheskharis oil terminal, declined to comment.
Novorossiisk is Russia’s largest port on the Black Sea. It’s a key oil outlet for crude oil and oil products exports and transit in Russia’s south. It also handles grain, coal, mineral fertilizers, timber, containers, food and chemical cargoes.
Crude oil Aframax vessel Hera 1 was pulled off a Sheskharis berth and anchored at some distance early on Friday, later loading operations with her were resumed, one of the sources said. Hera 1 was fully loaded with crude later in the day, LSEG data showed.
Ukraine mounted an unusually large wave of overnight drone attacks on Russia that killed two people in Belgorod region and set fire to an oil refinery at Tuapse on the Black Sea, Russian officials said on Friday.
The facilities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which exports Kazakhstan’s oil from the Black Sea, are operating normally, Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said on Friday, following an overnight drone attack on Russia’s port city of Novorossiisk.
Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft gained control of the NCSP in 2018.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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