Ukraine Strikes Lukoils Caspian Rig in First Drone Attack on Oil Infrastructure

A significant oil and gas production platform in the Caspian Sea, operated by Lukoil, has stopped its operations following an unprecedented attack involving Ukrainian drones, as reported by various news organizations on Thursday, citing Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU).

Bloomberg, Reuters, and the Kyiv Independent have all indicated that at least four long-range drones struck the Filanovsky rig, leading to the cessation of production from over 20 oil and gas wells managed by Russia’s second-largest oil producer, Lukoil.

An SBU source informed CNN that, “This marks the first time Ukraine has targeted Russian oil infrastructure in the Caspian Sea.”

Ukraine has not yet officially acknowledged its involvement in the incident.

Lukoil has refrained from commenting on the drone strikes, which occurred 700 kilometers (approximately 435 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The Filanovsky platform is among the largest in the Russian segment of the Caspian Sea, with a production capacity of 120,000 barrels of oil daily, equating to 6 million tons annually.

According to independent Russian news outlet Astra, which cited a source from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry under anonymity, the drone assault on the Filanovsky rig took place on Monday evening.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that it shot down one Ukrainian drone over the Caspian Sea on Monday afternoon but has not reported any further interceptions in the area since that time.

Lukoil discovered the oil field in 2005, commencing production in 2016.

The rig is part of a more extensive Lukoil facility that includes estimated reserves of 129 million tons of oil and 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas, with much of this output being transported to the Black Sea via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which has faced multiple drone attacks from Ukraine in recent months.