Crude oil exports from Russia's Sheskharis terminal at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk were suspended on Friday following a drone attack, three sources familiar with the matter said, adding to disruptions at one of the country's key export outlets.
The Sheskharis terminal, which handles around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, is Russia's main oil export facility on the Black Sea. Its shutdown adds to pressure on Russian energy infrastructure, which has come under repeated attack in recent months.
The administration of Novorossiysk issued a fresh drone alert for residents on Friday, indicating a continued threat to the port area.
One tanker scheduled to load crude at the port left for open sea early on Friday following an attempted drone attack on the terminal, one of the sources said.
As a result of the attempted attack, the port suspended crude loadings and stopped accepting oil into the terminal because storage tanks had reached capacity, the source added.
The sources could not be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The disruption follows a period of strong export volumes in recent months. Crude loadings from Novorossiysk reached close to 1 million bpd in July and about 800,000 bpd in June, according to one source familiar with the export data.
Novorossiysk handles exports of Russia's flagship Urals crude, Kazakhstan's KEBCO blend and Siberian Light oil.
The suspension follows a series of disruptions to oil exports from Russia's Black Sea coast. Last month, Ukrainian drone attacks temporarily halted loadings at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal near Novorossiysk, reducing exports of CPC Blend crude and affecting supplies to major buyers, including Turkey.
(Reuters)