Exclusive-Russia’s Tuapse halted fuel exports after drone attacks, refinery stopped, sources say

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse has suspended fuel exports, while the local oil refinery halted processing crude following November 2 Ukrainian drone attacks on its infrastructure, according to two industry sources and LSEG ship tracking data.

Ukraine said on Sunday its drones struck Tuapse, one of Russia’s main Black Sea oil ports, causing a fire and damaging at least one ship, as part of Kyiv’s efforts to undermine Russia’s war economy by targeting its energy infrastructure.

The regional administration confirmed the strike sparked a fire at the port.

Ukraine has for several months been striking Russian oil refineries, depots and pipelines, while Ukrainian energy infrastructure has also been the target of Russian strikes in a war that is approaching its fourth year.

The sources said the Rosneft-controlled refinery, which exports most of its production, halted processing the following day because of the damage to port infrastructure.

Rosneft and Russia’s port agency did not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Before the attack, Tuapse had been expected to boost oil products exports in November.

According to LSEG data, three tankers were docked at the port during the attack for loadings of naphtha, diesel and fuel oil.

As of Wednesday, all the vessels were moved away from the berths and anchored near the port, the data showed.

The export-oriented Tuapse plant, which has a processing capacity of 240,000 barrels of oil per day, produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel.

The refinery, which had also been targeted by drones several times, mainly supplies China, Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Tomasz Janowswki)