Astana, 2 November. Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry has reported a temporary halt of oil transportation along the Atyrau–Samara pipeline because of a drone attack on facilities of the Samara production and dispatch hub overnight on 2 November, Reuters reports.
Transportation was stopped at 4:09 Moscow time. “Resumption of oil intake in this direction is expected in the near future,” the ministry’s statement says; an industry source told Reuters that pumping is expected to resume on the evening of 2 November. The Atyrau–Samara pipeline is part of the Uzen–Atyrau–Samara trunk pipeline, which links Kazakh fields with Transneft’s system and remains one of the export routes of Kazakh oil across Russia.
In the Samara region, according to Ukrainian monitoring channels and OSINT analysis by Astra, the target was Transneft’s Samara linear production and dispatch station (LPDS), where a fire started, The Moscow Times writes. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev reported the attack was repelled, and Russia’s Defence Ministry reported 212 Ukrainian drones shot down overnight. The station is in the settlement of Prosvet; according to Krym.Realii, its area exceeds 216 hectares and it has 71 tanks. This is the fifth strike in a month: the station was earlier attacked on 2, 7, 10 and 11 October, and after each, The Moscow Times notes, a fire broke out at the site. Radio Svoboda writes that at least 11 tanks were destroyed in earlier strikes.
For Kazakhstan the station matters as a junction: pipelines with West Siberian, Tatarstan, Orenburg, Samara and Kazakh oil converge there, and from it the oil goes to the south-west of Russia, including into Druzhba. The Telegram channel oilgazKZ recalls that the station ensures transport of Kazakh oil along the Atyrau–Samara pipeline; it says NASA satellite images for Monday show a thermal anomaly and storage capacity exceeds 1.6 million cubic metres.
What we know now: The halt of pumping was confirmed by Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry, which called it temporary and expects oil intake to resume in the near future. The fire at the station is known from Ukrainian monitoring channels, eyewitness photos and a satellite thermal anomaly; the messages reviewed contain no confirmation from Transneft. The volume of oil that did not reach the station, the scale of damage and whether pumping had resumed by the time of publication are not given.
Background: The main export route for Kazakh oil is the CPC: more than 80% of exports go through it, Reuters recalls.
