MOSCOW: A drone strike has hit a pumping station on a oil pipeline in Russia, reducing flows from Kazakhstan to world markets pumped by Western firms including Chevron and Exxon Mobil, its operator said on Monday.
The strike comes a day before US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The operator, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), said drones struck the Kropotkinskaya station in the southern Krasnodar region, where work was halted to investigate the damage.
It said seven drones were involved in the strike, which it called an act of terrorism. It did not specify that the drones had come from Ukraine.
However, an official at Ukraine’s SBU security service said that Kyiv had hit the pumping station and nearby Ilsky oil refinery using drones.
At least 20 explosions were heard in the vicinity of the refinery, the official said, asking not to be named, adding that the oil facilities were being used to supply Russia’s military in its three-year war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian drones have repeatedly targeted Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, including in the Krasnodar region, but Monday’s attack would be the first on facilities involving Western oil majors.
The CPC pipeline is the main export route for Kazakhstan, which supplies about 1% of the world’s oil.
Shell and Italy’s Eni are also among its shareholders, as is the Russian state.
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