Novorossiysk resumes oil loadings after drone attack halts 700,000 bpd terminal

Russia's main Black Sea oil port of Novorossiysk resumed crude loadings Sunday after a Ukrainian drone attack forced the 700,000 barrels-per-day Sheskharis terminal to suspend exports for two days, two trading sources said.

"A Suezmax-class tanker has been loading Kazakh KEBCO crude since Sunday and was scheduled to sail Monday," one of the trading sources said. Another tanker is expected to begin loading 80,000 tons of KEBCO on Tuesday, the source added.

The port suspended loadings Friday after an attempted drone attack, stopped accepting oil because storage tanks had reached capacity, and a tanker scheduled to load crude left for open sea without its cargo. Loadings from Novorossiysk reached close to 1 million bpd in July and about 800,000 bpd in June, according to a source familiar with the export data.

The brief shutdown shows the growing vulnerability of Russian energy infrastructure, which has faced repeated Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months. Novorossiysk, which loads Russia's Urals and Siberian Light grades as well as Kazakh KEBCO, is also a vital transit route for landlocked Kazakhstan, which relies on Russian infrastructure to export its oil to global markets.

The Aug. 12 strike and its aftermath

The suspension followed a large-scale Ukrainian attack on Novorossiysk on Aug. 12 that President Volodymyr Zelensky described as a "unique operation" combining Palianytsia jet-powered drones, Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles, and naval drones. The strike hit Russian air-defense positions, piers, and port infrastructure, and killed an 8-year-old boy while injuring eight others, according to Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

The Novorossiysk administration issued a fresh drone alert for residents on Friday, indicating a continued threat to the port area. The disruption follows a period of strong export volumes, with loadings from the port reaching close to 1 million bpd in July.

A pattern of Black Sea disruptions

The suspension is the latest in 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 terminal near Novorossiysk, reducing exports of CPC Blend crude and affecting supplies to major buyers including Turkey. The CPC facility is the main export route for Kazakhstan's largest oil fields, and its repeated shutdowns have forced Kazakh producers to seek alternative shipping arrangements.

The repeated strikes come as Moscow on Aug. 14 rejected Kyiv's offer of a truce in the Black Sea, a measure that could prevent a global food crisis. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said reviving the 2022-2023 Black Sea grain initiative would be "ill-advised."

The two-day halt at Novorossiysk is shorter than previous disruptions, but the frequency of attacks is what concerns market participants. The Aug. 12 strike marked the second major assault on the port area in as many months, and the pattern suggests Ukrainian forces are systematically targeting Russia's export infrastructure. Each incident forces tankers to wait at anchor or reroute, adding days to shipping schedules and raising freight costs for Urals and KEBCO cargoes.

For global crude markets, the pattern of intermittent disruptions at Russia's key export terminals adds a persistent supply risk premium to Brent and WTI even as operations resume. With Novorossiysk handling close to 1 million bpd at peak, any extended outage would remove a meaningful share of seaborne Russian crude from the market, tightening supply for refiners in Europe and Asia that depend on Urals and KEBCO grades.

The resumption does not eliminate the risk of further interruptions. Ukrainian forces have shown the ability to strike deep into Russian port infrastructure, and Zelensky has vowed to continue attacks on Russian ports in retaliation for ballistic missile strikes against Ukrainian cities. "The occupation fleet and all the infrastructure supporting it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues," he said. For traders, each fresh drone alert at Novorossiysk carries the potential to halt loadings again, keeping a floor under crude prices even as supply from other regions expands.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.