Drones Damage Oil Pipeline Near Port of Primorsk

Strike drones damaged a section of an oil pipeline near the port of Primorsk in Russia’s Leningrad region.

Alexander Drozdenko, the regional governor, said the damage happened during efforts to repel a morning drone attack, when debris from a downed drone struck the pipeline.

However, NASA’s FIRMS fire monitoring system detected a fire not on the pipeline section itself but directly on the oil depot’s territory; it is likely the same fire that began there on March 23.

It is also possible that the governor was referring to the port’s coastal pipeline infrastructure, rather than a separate long-distance main pipeline.

The port serves as the endpoint of the Baltic Pipeline System.

It is Russia’s largest oil export port on the Baltic Sea and, according to Reuters, can handle up to 1 million barrels of oil per day. This means that even minor damage to a pipeline segment there can disrupt logistics.

According to publicly available information, the terminal’s tank farm consists of 18 tanks of the RVSPK-50,000 type and 5 emergency discharge tanks: 2 RVS-3,000 and 3 RVS-5,000.

Their total storage capacity is approximately 921,000 cubic meters. At the same time, following attacks in late March 2026, it was reported that at least 8 tanks, each with a capacity of 50,000 m³, were damaged in Primorsk, which corresponds to about 40% of the terminal’s total storage capacity.

Ukrainian drones have repeatedly targeted the port. As a result of these attacks, the port has lost its operational capability.

Following the March 23, 2026, attack, berths No. 1, 2, 4, 8, and 9 were damaged, and a major fire broke out in the tank farm area.

Overall, the facility’s maritime infrastructure includes nine berths capable of accommodating tankers with a deadweight of up to 150,000 tons, made possible by the harbor’s significant depth of 18.2 meters.

Along with the terminals in Ust-Luga and Novorossiysk, this port is among the three strategic oil hubs in the European part of Russia.