Ukraine has damaged an offshore drilling rig at Lukoil’s Grayfer field in the Russian Caspian Sea in a drone attack, the Ukrainian General Staff said on Wednesday.
As a result of a strike on December 14, drones damaged the gas drilling rig at the Grayfer oilfield. Following the damage, all 14 wells at the platform have halted operations, Ukraine said today, claiming yet another hit at a field in the Caspian Sea.
Grayfer is operated by Russian major Lukoil, as well as the Filanovsky and Korchagin fields in the north Caspian Sea, all of which have now been hit by drones in the past week.
Last week, Ukraine escalated its campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, with Ukraine’s security services executing a long-range drone strike on a major offshore oil field in the Caspian Sea, effectively halting production at a key Lukoil facility.
The December 11 attack on the Filanovsky field hit the offshore platform, forcing the suspension of oil and gas production from more than 20 wells servicing the facility. Filanovsky, discovered by Lukoil in 2005 and brought online in 2016, is considered the largest oil discovery in Russia in decades, holding estimated reserves of 129 million tons of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
The long-range attacks at these offshore platforms place the Caspian Sea, a vital artery for global energy markets, directly into the crosshairs of the war. The region serves as a crucial hub not only for Russian output but also for Central Asian energy exports.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russia’s oil refineries, depots, and export terminals in an escalation of the war on energy infrastructure, which has also seen Russia targeting Ukraine’s gas producing facilities and gas and power distribution networks as temperatures drop.
Attacks continue even as the U.S. has renewed efforts to broker a peace deal.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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