Ukrainian drones damage ship, homes, oil depot in Russia’s Novorossiysk

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(Reuters) -A Ukrainian drone attack early on Friday damaged a docked ship, apartment buildings and an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, a key outlet for Russian oil exports, injuring three of the vessel’s crew members, Russian officials said.

Global oil prices jumped around 2% on supply fears after the attack.

Russia’s oil infrastructure has faced repeated disruptions this year due to drone and unmanned boat attacks. Baltic and Black Sea ports, a trunk pipeline system and a number of oil refineries have been targeted.

According to industry sources, crude oil shipments via Novorossiysk reached 3.22 million tonnes, or 761,000 barrels a day, in October. For the first 10 months of the year, the figure was 24.716 million tonnes.

A total of 1.794 million tonnes of oil products were exported through Novorossiysk port in October and the figure was 16.783 million tonnes from January through October, the sources said.

“Novorossiysk suffered the most,” said Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, on social media. “Overnight, more than 170 people and 50 pieces of equipment dealt with the aftermath of the attack, quickly extinguishing fires and assisting residents.”

The boat’s three injured crew members were being treated in the hospital, Kondratyev and the operational headquarters of the region said on Telegram.

The officials later said the fire at the oil depot at the Sheskharis terminal, which handles crude oil and oil product exports, has been extinguished.

The headquarters also said drone fragments hit at least four apartments, smashing windows but causing no injuries.

The operational headquarters said coastal structures were also damaged, but did not provide further details. 

Reuters could not verify the accounts of the attacks and there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Saad Sayeed and Thomas Derpinghaus)