Reuters: Lukoil diverts oil from Azerbaijan to Russia over US sanctions

Russian oil company LUKOIL, which was hit by US blocking sanctions on October 22, has ceased shipments of oil from Caspian fields to the port of Baku, instead routing cargo to Makhachkala for further export via Novorossiysk, Reuters reports, citing two sources.

LUKOIL produces oil from two Caspian offshore fields — the Filanovsky and Korchagin fields. Previously, crude from these fields was exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.

Since 2022, however, oil has been delivered to Azerbaijani SOCAR’s refineries, with part of the output also flowing into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system.

According to the sources, the tanker Lady Leila, sailing under the Russian flag, is due to arrive in Makhachkala on November 6 carrying 5,000 tonnes of crude from the Korchagin field.

LUKOIL is expected to deliver approximately 30,000 tonnes to Makhachkala in November, and from December will redirect the full volume previously bound for Baku — around 130,000 tonnes — to the Russian port.

At Makhachkala, oil is transferred into the storage tanks of the Dagnefteprodukt terminal before being fed into the Makhachkala–Novorossiysk pipeline, part of the Baku–Novorossiysk transport system, for export. The terminal’s throughput capacity is around 400,000 tonnes per month.

By Aghakazim Guliyev