Russia's Novorossiisk resumes partial loadings after drone attack, sources say
World
vRussia's Novorossiisk resumes partial loadings after drone attack, sources say
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.
"The Kyiv regime failed in an attempt to attack civil objects at Novorossiisk," Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram.
"As result of UAVs falling the fires were sparked which now are being extinguished," Kondratyev 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 is a key oil outlet for crude oil and oil products exports and transit in Russia's south. It also loads oil from coming Kazkahstan and Azerbaijan and handles grain, coal, mineral fertilizers, timber, containers, food and chemical cargoes.
The North Sea benchmark BFOE lost around 25 cents per barrel after Reuters reported the news about Novorossiisk oil operations resuming.
Russia's Urals, Siberian Light and Kazkahstan's KEBCO oil grades loadings from Novorossiisk are planned at 2.3 million tons (314 barrels per day) in May.
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.
