Drone Strike Hits One of Russia’s Most Critical Oil Gateways in Novorossiysk

Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out a drone strike on the “Sheskharis” oil terminal in the Russian port city of Novorossiysk overnight on April 6, reportedly damaging critical infrastructure used for oil exports.

According to the monitoring project Astra on April 6, multiple explosions were reported in the area of the terminal, followed by a large fire.

Russian regional authorities confirmed that drone debris was found at several industrial locations, though they did not specify which facilities were affected.

Open-source analysts from the “CyberBoroshno” community identified three primary impact points based on visual evidence. These include two loading piers and a key node of the oil measurement and distribution system, which regulates the flow of crude between pipelines and export berths.

According to the analysts, damage to both piers and the metering infrastructure may effectively halt loading operations at the terminal. The affected systems are used for commercial accounting and precise control of oil transfers to tankers.

The “Sheskharis” terminal is one of Russia’s largest oil export hubs on the Black Sea and serves as the endpoint for major pipeline routes in the Krasnodar region. It is operated as part of the Transneft system and handles the reception, storage, and shipment of crude oil and petroleum products.

Data from EnergyBase indicates that the facility has a design capacity of up to 75 million tons annually, with storage capacity exceeding 1.2 million cubic meters. The terminal includes multiple berths capable of handling tankers of varying sizes, with loading rates reaching up to 15,000 cubic meters per hour.

Oil shipments through the port of Novorossiysk reached approximately 3.22 million tons in October 2025, equivalent to around 760,000 barrels per day. In March 2026, export volumes were estimated at roughly 700,000 barrels per day.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Security Service, in coordination with the Armed Forces’ unmanned systems unit, used FP-2 drones to strike the Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant in occupied Luhansk on April 4, damaging blast furnaces, power infrastructure, and gas systems, and halting steel production used in Russian tank manufacturing.

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