Kyiv Drones Target More Kremlin Energy: Oil Export From Major Russian Port “Drops to Zero”

A Ukrainian follow-up strike on a key Russian oil export terminal shut it down and halted about 20 percent of Russian crude exports by sea, according to reports on Friday.

Russia’s Ust-Luga port, on the Baltic Sea, west of the major Russian city St. Petersburg, had stopped loading tankers because damage to pumping infrastructure on oil transportation pipelines upstream had left the facility without product to load.

The market information group Bloomberg on Thursday, citing industry sources, reported oil flows through Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga had halted because of Wednesday Ukrainian drone strikes against the Andreapol pumping station on the Baltic Pipeline System-2, which feeds the Ust-Luga port.

According to open-source vessel trackers, the last tanker to depart the port left during the day about eight hours before the System-2 pumping station strike. Ust-Luga normally handles about 650,000 barrels of crude daily, or about 20 percent of Russia’s total seaborne oil export flows, Bloomberg reported.

Drones launched by Ukraine’s national spy agency the SBU in cooperation with national special operations units hit the key upstream Andreapol pumping station in Russia’s central Tver Oblast on Wednesday. The station’s primary function is to pump oil produced in Russian fields in the Arctic and west Siberia to Ust-Luga port for export.

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Official Russian statements said 29 Ukrainian drones participated in the nighttime strike and that, although all the drones “were shot down… falling debris” ignited local fires later extinguished by firemen. Damage to the station was minimal, state-controlled media said.

The independent Russian news agency Astra citing sources in Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations confirmed the fact of Ukrainian drone strikes against the System-2 station. The kamikaze aircraft damaged pump station management and maintenance buildings and scored multiple hits in the vicinity of the station’s pump and pipeline network, that report said. The Astra description of damage caused by the Ukrainian strike matched closely damage claims made by the SBU.

The independent civilian world vessel location tracker marinetraffic.com on Friday morning showed one tanker stationary at a pier at the Ust-Luga petroleum products storage base, but its last GPS fix was from Thursday evening. Seven tankers were shown to be anchored offshore.

The stop to Ust-Luga oil exports followed on a record four-year low volume of oil loadings at the port, the market analytical group Trading View reported on Jan. 27, citing traders. The port was loading at half capacity at the end of 2024 and January Ust-Luga exports will likely be the lowest from the port since 2021, that report said.

International oil price trackers on Friday showed little reaction to news that tanker loading at Ust-Luga had come to a halt. Price trends were continuing gradually downwards with the price of a barrel generally between $75 and $78 dollars, depending on origin.

Oil and petroleum product exports are by a significant margin Russia’s most important source of foreign income and a key component of the Russian Federation state budget. According to data compiled the Bruegel research group, mineral fuel exports inject between $12-15 billion into the Russia’s national economy every month. Oil and gas revenues according to a late January article authored by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak pay for about 30 percent of Russia’s federal budget.

According to data compiled by the Ukrainian research group Slovo i Dilo, Ukrainian strike planners in late December kicked off a focused bombardment campaign with the objective of degrading and, where possible, taking offline the northern section of the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, an oil transport network delivering Russian oil through Belarusian territory to Poland, or through Ukrainian territory to Hungary and Slovakia.

Both Slovakia and Hungary are heavily dependent on low-priced Russian energy deliveries and have mostly avoided criticizing Russia’s invasion of its smaller western neighbor Ukraine. The Ukrainian government at the end of 2024 cut off Russian oil exports via pipelines crossing Ukraine, citing money pouring into Russia’s war budget from the export earnings. Bratislava and Budapest have called the Kyiv move hostile and called on Ukraine to accept Russian peace terms, so that fuel deliveries might resume.

An analysis by that group suggested that aside from cutting money and fuel available to the Russian state for warfighting, a goal of Ukrainian strikes against nodes in the Druzhba network, among them the System-2 pump station, is to signal to Slovakia and Hungary that Kyiv can and will retaliate against countries supporting Russia against Ukraine.

“These NPCs [Druzhba pipeline pumping stations] are quite fragile. If it wished, Ukraine could give them [Russian air defenses] nightmares every day. It would be very difficult for Russia to protect the branch along its entire length with air defense means,” the report said in part.

Overnight Thursday-Friday Ukrainian kamikaze drones also hit a Volgograd oil refinery, Russia’s sixth largest, owned and operated by Lukoil in a strike following up on a Jan. 15 attack. The major energy operator is the plant owner. A Ukrainian army general staff statement confirmed special operations teams launched the long-range aircraft.

Another Ukrainian drone raid hit a Lukoil refinery near the city Nizhniy Novgorod, according to independent sources. However, by midday Friday, official Russian sources had not commented on that attack.

A Russian Defense Ministry statement said that overnight national air defenses shot down 40-plus Ukrainian drones in six regions in western Russia, and that there was no significant damage.

Ukraine on Dec. 30 kicked off a campaign targeting Russian energy infrastructure with long-range drones, and since then has launched at least 10 major kamikaze aircraft strikes at refineries, pumping stations and storage facilities in Russia’s western and central regions.

Ukrainian drones first appeared over Ust-Luga port to dive onto fuel storage reservoirs on Jan. 4 after a flight of some 900 km. One gas condensate reservoir was blown up and three were damaged in the attack, Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency reported, citing special operations sources.