Ust-Luga

Ust-Luga is Russia's largest Baltic Sea crude and petroleum products terminal, located in Leningrad Oblast on the Gulf of Finland, handling crude oil, fuel oil, gasoline, and LPG destined for European and Asian markets. It is the most consequential single node in Russia's Baltic energy export corridor.

Ukrainian drones struck Ust-Luga and the adjacent Primorsk terminal at least four times between 22 and 31 March 2026, collapsing weekly Russian seaborne crude exports from 4.07 million bpd to 2.32 million bpd, a 43% single-week drop. Ust-Luga halted all fuel oil and gasoline intake on 25 March, triggering cascade shutdowns at the Kirishi refinery and threatening three further refineries in Yaroslavl, Moscow, and Ryazan. Russia responded with a gasoline export ban from 1 April through 31 July 2026. Ust-Luga resumed crude loading on 5 April, but with combined Baltic throughput at a year-low of 115,000 tonnes per day and Primorsk operating only four of ten berths.

By May 2026, Ust-Luga had largely recovered: CREA data showed total fossil-fuel revenues rising 2% month-on-month despite a 12% fall in the Urals crude price, with Ust-Luga's recovered loadings partially compensating for sustained disruption at the Tuapse Black Sea refinery. On 14 June, Royal Marines boarded the shadow tanker Smyrtos in the English Channel; the vessel had sailed from Ust-Luga on 5 June, the highest-profile enforcement action yet against the shadow fleet feeding from the terminal. Ust-Luga is the highest-value Baltic target in Ukraine's Energy infrastructure campaign; its export volumes directly fund approximately 30% of Russia's federal budget.