Satellite images show damage to Russian oil port hit by Ukrainian drones – Reuters

The Baltic port of Primorsk in Russia, one of the country's largest export hubs, lost at least 40% of its storage capacity as a result of Ukrainian drone attacks last month.

Source: US satellite images seen by Reuters

Details: Satellite images provided by the US geospatial intelligence company Vantor show that at least eight storage tanks with a capacity of 50,000 cubic metres each were damaged.

This accounts for at least 40% of the port's total storage capacity and could force the terminal to reduce transshipment volumes accordingly, traders said.

Storage tanks play a key role in port logistics chains, and their availability directly affects oil export capacity.

The satellite images also showed that eight petroleum product storage tanks with a capacity of 30,000 cubic metres each at the Ust-Luga Oil terminal were damaged by fire. This represents about a quarter of the facility's total storage capacity.

The images also indicated that some of the piers were damaged.

Another Baltic Sea port, Ust-Luga, was also attacked several times last month and was forced to suspend loading operations.

Industry sources said that two of the eight heavily damaged tanks were used for handling diesel fuel.

Local Russian authorities reported that Ust-Luga was struck on 22, 25, 27, 29 and 31 March, forcing export operations to be suspended.

Reuters reports that over the past month, Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian energy facilities, carrying out the most powerful drone strikes on Baltic Sea ports in more than four years of war.

At one point last month, about 40% of Russia's oil export capacity was halted due to these attacks.

Background:

• In March, authorities in Russia's Leningrad Oblast reported a large-scale drone attack, "damage to a fuel storage tank", and a fire at the port of Primorsk.
• It later became known that the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga, Russia's largest oil export points, suspended crude oil and fuel exports following drone strikes.
• Ukraine's defence forces struck the oil terminal at the port of Primorsk in Leningrad Oblast and the Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim refinery in Ufa. Fires broke out at both facilities.

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