Leningrad drone strikes cut Kremlin oil revenue by $1 billion
Fire at Ust-Luga oil terminal (Photo: Dnipro Osint)
Ukrainian drone strikes on the oil terminals at Primorsk and
Ust‑Luga
sharply reduced Russia’s oil exports last week and already cost
the Kremlin $1 billion in lost revenue, Bloomberg reported
on March 31.
“Baltic shipments were the lowest since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in 2022,” the report said.
“Repeated attacks on the oil export terminals at Primorsk and Ust-Luga set storage tanks ablaze and halted loading activities for much of last week, cutting flows through the ports to about a third of the previous week’s level and reducing Moscow’s oil income by more than $1 billion.”
From March 23 to 29, Russia exported 16.23 million barrels of oil on 22 tankers, down 43% from 28.5 million barrels on 37 ships the previous week, Bloomberg said. Average daily shipments fell to 2.3 million barrels from 4.1 million, the lowest daily rate since February 2025. Aggregate exports from Baltic ports also dropped to their lowest level since the start of the full-scale war. Primorsk loaded only four tankers that week and Ust‑Luga two.
Bloomberg said the attacks came as the Kremlin was increasing exports to markets where oil prices had more than doubled in a month due to the Iran war. The news agency added that Ukraine showed no sign of easing its campaign despite pressure from some international partners, noting global oil flows were heavily disrupted after the effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz.
Bloomberg also reported that tankers carrying Russian oil
are increasingly avoiding the North Sea and the English Channel after the UK
said it would intercept and inspect vessels from Russia’s “shadow fleet” in its
waters. That forces ships to sail around northern Scotland, adding about two
days, or roughly 25%, to transit times between the Baltic and the Mediterranean
compared with the more common route between England and France, the report
said.
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