Moscow: Ukraine hits major oil terminal in southern Russia

MOSCOW, April 8 ------ Ukrainian drones attacked the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's marine terminal in southern Russia, damaging a mooring point and setting four oil tanks ablaze, the Russian defense ministry said. The CPC pipeline handles around 1 per cent of the world's oil supplies, as well as around 80 per cent of Kazakhstan's oil exports.

The Ukrainian army said it had attacked a different terminal in the port of Novorossiysk, without mentioning the Caspian Pipeline Consortium. The CPC did not immediately comment.

During the night, Ukraine "deliberately attacked facilities of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium international oil transportation company," the Russian defense ministry said. "As a result of the Ukrainian drone strikes, the pipeline of a single mooring point, as well as a loading and unloading terminal, was damaged, and four oil product storage tanks caught fire," the ministry added. It accused Ukraine of attempting to "destabilize the global hydrocarbon market and cut off oil supplies to European consumers".

The Russian defense ministry did not provide any immediate visual evidence of the strikes. The Ukrainian army said it had struck the Sheskharis oil terminal, a key Russian oil hub in the port of Novorossiysk - near where the CPC is located - but did not mention the CPC itself. "Direct hits on the target and a large-scale fire on the territory of the terminal were recorded," it said on Telegram.

Ukraine has targeted the CPC multiple times throughout the four-year war, including a naval drone strike last November that led to a temporary halt in the terminal's operations. Among the CPC's shareholders are US oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil. The United States told Ukraine to stop targeting American interests at the port following those attacks last year, according to US media reports.

The attacks have also drawn frustration from Kazakhstan, which transports the bulk of its oil exports through the CPC. The Ukrainian military says the strikes help drain the energy revenues Moscow uses to fund the war and are a justified response to Russia's missile and drone attacks. Ukraine recently conveyed a proposal for a ceasefire on striking energy targets to Russia via the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Monday. "If Russia is ready to stop striking our energy sector, we will be ready to respond in kind," he said.

Source: channelnewsasia.com