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A Russian oil pumping station was ablaze a week after a drone strike.
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The Caspian Pipeline Consortium accused Ukraine of a “terrorist” attack on it.
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It said oil transfer is halted and its shareholders are being impacted.
An oil pumping station in Russia that was targeted by a suspected Ukrainian drone strike was still on fire a week later, with its parent company saying that the losses were hitting its shareholders.
The Kavkazskaya pump station, in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai, was struck in an overnight attack that began on March 18.
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The station is part of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which lists multiple oil producers among its partners, including Chevron-led Tengizchevroil.
CPC said the site pumped about 1.5 million tons of crude oil in 2024.
Authorities initially said that drone debris hit a pipeline, starting a 215-square-ft blaze that quickly spread. According to Russian reports, the fire expanded dramatically within a matter of days.
The fire was finally extinguished on Tuesday after spreading up to 100,000 square feet, the region’s governor, Veniamin Kondratiev, said.
CPC accused Ukraine of a “terrorist” attack and said that, combined with an earlier strike on another pumping station, it’s had a “destructive impact on the CPC financials,” which will “impact all of its shareholders.”
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The pipeline is a major oil export route for Kazakhstan, with state-owned KazMunaiGaz holding a 19% share. The Russian government, which holds 24%, is the consortium’s largest shareholder.
The station will not be transporting oil “in the foreseeable future,” the company said.
However, Sally Jones, a spokesperson for Chevron, told Business Insider in a statement that Tengizchevroil’s production and export of crude oil via the CPC “remain uninterrupted.”
Kavkazskay is located at the center of this NASA fire-tracking image that marked three blazes as of early Tuesday.NASA/FIRMS
Ukraine has used strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure as part of its response to Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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The latest energy infrastructure damage came amid President Donald Trump‘s attempts to mediate a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.
Russian reports said that the initial fire started a chain reaction involving an explosion and an oil spill that ignited, with more than 450 firefighters deployed to tackle it.
NASA’s satellite-powered FIRMS fire-tracking tool appeared to show that what had been a single hot spot at the site on March 19 had expanded out to three large areas as of early Tuesday.
The fire was the latest in a series of attacks on CPC facilities. The consortium said that Russian air defenses repelled an overnight drone attack on the same site on Monday.
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Meanwhile, on February 17, CPC said a nearby pumping station, Kropotkinskaya, was attacked “by seven UAVs loaded with explosives and shrapnel,” which reduced its output.
Read the original article on Business Insider