MOSCOW – A senior Russian official announced on Tuesday that Ukrainian drones had attacked a pipeline in Russia, which pumps about 1% of the global crude supply. The strike, he said, could disrupt flows to world markets and damage U.S. companies.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) reported on Monday that the Kropotkinskaya station, a crude oil transportation facility in the southern Krasnodar region, was struck by several drones loaded with explosives and shrapnel. The CPC did not specify who was behind the attack but confirmed that the Kropotkinskaya facility had been taken out of service. Crude oil through the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline system is being maintained at reduced flow rates, bypassing the pumping station. Kropotkinskaya is the largest pumping station on the pipeline in Russia.
“Ukrainian drones attacked a pumping station that provides oil transportation through the main oil pipeline of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium,” said Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council. “A blow to an oil consortium could stop oil pumping, unbalance the market, increase oil price spikes and cause direct damage to American companies,” he added.
An official at Ukraine’s SBU security service confirmed that Kyiv had targeted the pumping station and the nearby Ilsky oil refinery using drones.
Medvedev noted that the attack on a pipeline partly owned by U.S. companies was a blow against U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sought lower oil prices. It remains to be seen how President Trump will respond to this development.
The CPC transports oil from the vast Tengiz field on the northeastern shores of the Caspian and from Russian producers, taking oil 1,500 km (939 miles) across Kazakhstan and Russia to the Black Sea, where it is loaded onto tankers for supply to world markets. Russia holds a 24% stake in the CPC, while Kazakh state oil and gas company KazMunayGas has a 19% stake, Chevron has a 15% stake, Lukoil has a 12.5% stake, and Exxon Mobil has a 7.5% stake.
In 2024, the CPC exported 63.01 million metric tons of oil, known as the CPC blend.