Russia’s Novatek has halted operations at a Baltic Sea fuel export terminal following according to drone attack by Ukrainian force. The Ust-Luga terminal caught fire as a result of the reported attack. The duration of the site’s operations suspension was not immediately known.
One of the main export hubs for Russian fuels and crude oil is Ust-Luga.
According to a regional authority official quoted in Russia’s Vedomosti daily, there were 2 explosions at the export terminal site. Which resulted in a fire at one of the fuel the storage tanks.
Novatek was quoted by TASS as attesting to the fact that outside actions caused the fire. Novatek-Ust-Luga’s technological innovation has been halted, and an operational offices has been set up to mitigate the effects.
The evaluation of damage will be completed later. A Ukrainian attack was also confirmed by the Ukrainian new agency Interfax-Ukraine. Unnamed sources informed the outlet that the Ust-Luga terminal was crucial for providing fuel to Russian troops.
Uncertainties in Russian Fuel and Oil Exports: Outage Duration and Future Impacts
This is the most recent in what appears to be a string of attacks by the Ukrainians on Russian infrastructure; retaliation will probably come soon.
Uncertainty surrounds the length of the Ust-Luga terminal’s outage as well as the impact on Russian fuel and oil exports from the suspension.
In comparison to November, these increased by 500 thousand bpd to 7.8 million bpd in the final month of 2023. According to the IEA’s January Oil Market Report.
With crude oil shipments rising by 240 thousand bpd from November to 5 million bpd and oil product exports rising by 260 thousand bpd month over month. This was the biggest export level in 9 months. However, the IEA reported in its report that a wider discount with benchmarks caused revenues to drop to their lowest point in six months.