Russia's largest Black Sea oil export terminal has suspended tanker loadings following a surge in Ukrainian drone attacks, disrupting roughly one-fifth of the country's seaborne crude exports, Bloomberg reported Friday.
The Sheskharis terminal in the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk has not loaded any tankers since Tuesday morning, Bloomberg reported, citing shipping data, satellite imagery and vessel-tracking services.
The suspension is unlikely to have been caused by bad weather, Bloomberg said, noting that storm warnings for the area were issued only two days after the terminal's last loading operation.
The disruption marks the latest sign that Ukraine's expanding drone campaign is increasingly affecting Russia's energy export infrastructure, following recent attacks that also interrupted operations at the nearby Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) export terminal and forced Kazakhstan to reduce oil production.
The Sheskharis terminal exported an average of about 650,000 barrels of oil per day during the first seven months of the year. With Russia's average seaborne oil exports running at about 3.6 million barrels per day this year, the suspension has effectively halted around one-fifth of the country's oil exports.
