(April 13): Crude exports from Russia’s biggest Black Sea port are still limited, with its two largest berths yet to resume loadings after Ukrainian drone attacks last week.
Berths 1 and 1a, designed to handle Suezmax and Aframax tankers, have remained empty so far at Transneft PJSC’s Sheskharis terminal in the port of Novorossiysk, according to a satellite image from the European Union’s Copernicus Browser and people familiar with shipping data.
Crude is loading solely at berth 2, which can only host the smaller Aframax vessels, the people said on condition of anonymity because the information isn’t public. Russia’s oil-pipeline operator Transneft didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Novorossiysk is Russia’s largest Black Sea port with multiple facilities for commodity exports. In the first three months of the year it shipped an average of nearly 540,000 barrels a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Due to its importance for Russia’s oil industry, the port has been a repeated target for Ukrainian attacks in recent weeks. Kyiv aims to limit the Kremlin’s windfall from the rally in global oil prices driven by the war in Iran.
See also: Philippines removes kerosene, LPG taxes to temper food prices
The latest drone attack a week ago halted oil loadings at Novorossiysk for several days, with Ukraine claiming damage to docking equipment for at least five berths at the Sheskharis terminal and to the pipeline network connecting the terminal to storage tanks. The facility resumed crude loadings at the end of the week, when a smaller Aframax crude tanker moored at berth 2, ship-tracking data showed.
Berth 2 is designed to handle tankers with a deadweight of as much as 105,500 tonnes, limiting it to smaller Aframax vessels, according to Russian port agent Almar Services based in Novorossiysk. In contrast, berth 1 and 1a can load crude onto vessels with deadweight of up to 242,000 tonnes and 170,000 tonnes, respectively, accommodating both Aframax and larger Suezmax tankers.
Loadings also continue at berths 6 and 7 at Sheskharis, which handle refined oil products, one person said.
Uploaded by Felyx Teoh
