Ukrainian drones destroy Russia's super-profits from oil sales - media named the amount
Kyiv • UNN
Ukrainian drones attacked key Russian oil terminals in the Baltic Sea, causing about $970 million in losses from lost exports. Because of this, the Kremlin's super-profits from rising world oil prices have significantly decreased, and the restoration of the terminals will take weeks or months.
A series of strikes on key Russian oil terminals in the Baltic Sea has caused nearly a billion dollars in damages to the aggressor country – and that's just lost export revenue. This is reported by The Financial Times, according to UNN.
Details
"Ukrainian drone attacks in the Baltic region are preventing Russia from capitalizing on rising oil prices caused by the war in the Middle East and exposing weaknesses in the country's anti-drone system. The Kremlin has admitted that Russia has limited ability to protect its key energy export facilities from the consequences of President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, which is now in its fifth year. Moscow's extraordinary profits from the war in Iran remain high, as Brent crude trades above $100 a barrel, but attacks on Russia's two main export points in the Baltic Sea could cut the Kremlin's super-profits," the publication writes.
According to Borys Dodonov, head of energy and climate research at the Kyiv School of Economics, five attacks on Primorsk and Ust-Luga since the beginning of last week have cost Russian energy exporters about $970 million in revenue per week. Primorsk and Ust-Luga account for more than 40% of Russia's seaborne oil export capacity. According to a Western security official, oil worth $200 million was burned in Primorsk alone as a result of the attacks.
According to analysts, shipments from the terminal could resume in a few days, though not at full capacity, as it could take months to restore burned tanks without affecting exports. Analysts add that repairs to the technological lines at Novatek's Ust-Luga terminal could take more than a month.
Oil traders noted that the global consequences were most evident in the markets for naphtha, which is used in the petrochemical industry as a raw material for plastics production. According to Argus, naphtha prices in Asia have doubled since the beginning of the war.
Ust-Luga provides about 8% of the world's naphtha volume. According to Argus, after the attacks in the last week of March, exports of this product from there decreased by approximately 70%.
According to a person close to the Russian Ministry of Defense, recent waves of attacks indicate that Kyiv's long-range drone production industry is outperforming Moscow's, despite Russia's constant air strikes on Ukrainian drone manufacturers.
"If Ukraine can regularly launch cruise and ballistic missiles, then the Russian side will suffer even greater losses," the source noted.
Recall
World oil prices rose on Monday after US President Donald Trump issued a new deadline to Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. Amid new threats of strikes on Iranian infrastructure, Brent exceeded $111 per barrel.