Oleg Davygora22:00, 30.01.25

There are probably still oil reserves in the port, which would partially offset the possible reduction in exports.

Oil flows through Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga appear to have stopped, supporting Kyiv’s claims of a successful drone strike on a pumping station.

As Bloomberg writes  , this would become a new serious threat to the supply of oil to the world market if it were confirmed that the Ukrainian drone strikes damaged the pipeline system feeding Ust-Luga, stopping oil supplies from the port for a long period.

A person familiar with the shipments said flows from Ust-Luga dropped to zero on Jan. 29. Shipping data showed the tanker left early Wednesday, although there was a gap in the ships’ signals after that. None gave a reason for the apparent decline, and there may be periods when ships are not loading at all.

The port handled about 650,000 barrels of crude oil a day last year, or about 20% of Russia’s total seaborne shipments. The International Energy Agency expects the global supply surplus to be about 725,000 barrels a day in 2025.

“It is still possible that there are barrels available for loading in storage, softening the impact of any cut,” the newspaper writes.

Flows from the port have fallen sharply without explanation in recent weeks, the timing of which coincided with an incident at the Unecha pumping station in eastern Belarus.

Attack on the port of Ust-Luga

A Ukrainian security official said on Wednesday that the country’s drones struck the Russian Andreapol pumping station on the Baltic Pipeline System 2 that supplies Ust-Luga, causing the connection to shut down.

(C)UNIAN 2025