The Russian factory “Novatek” will not be able to resume work in the near future

The Russian oil terminal “Novatek”, attacked by Ukrainian drones, will not be able to resume work in the near future.

It will take time for Russian oil exports to resume, but this will not affect military operations in Ukraine. This was stated by the economic expert Raivo Vare, reports ERR.

“Exact information about the damage is, so to speak, vague, but as far as I understand, the damage is so great that the terminal will not be able to resume work in the near future,” said Vare, who previously worked in the field of transit of Russian oil products.

There is no detailed public information about the extent of the damage, but according to Vary, an explosion at an oil terminal can have unexpected consequences.

“Having some exposure to this industry, I can say that there can be very unexpected consequences that may not be immediately apparent. Figuratively speaking, the tanks may be intact, but something could have happened, for example, to other infrastructure. Unexpected consequences may arise and it will not be easy to correct them,” the economist explained.

According to him, the port of Ust-Luga is one of the main western export centers of Russia.

The damage caused to the plant as a result of the attack by Ukrainian drones is up to 6 million tons of oil products, which could cause a shortage in the industry.

“Many different products are obtained from the processing of gas condensate, and probably some of it was exported. And this means that to some extent depreciated exports will be replaced by less depreciated gas condensate raw materials. This is the biggest blow for the company-owner of Novatek, several projects of which were stopped due to sanctions. This terminal was a decent money machine that is now defunct,” said Ware.

According to Ware, the consequences may affect the military sphere as well, if they are accompanied by a temporary cessation of fuel supply. In particular, it may affect the supply of aviation fuel, but is not critical to the conduct of the war.

The terms of restoration of the plant after a fire depend on the degree of damage. For example, special pumps cannot be obtained immediately, and which are under sanctions. But even smuggling delivery will be much more expensive, but not faster.

We will remind you that on the night of January 21, there was an explosion and a fire in the Ust-Luga port of the Leningrad region of the Russian Federation. A fire broke out at one of the terminals of the Russian “Novatek”.

Ukrainian UAVs attacked the terminal. After the explosions and fire, the Russian factory “Novatek” suspended all operations.