Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces struck three Lukoil drilling platforms in the Caspian Sea on Sunday, January 11. Ukraine’s General Staff said that the military hit platforms on Lukoil’s three largest offshore oil fields. “As part of measures to reduce the aggressor’s military-economic potential, units of the Defence Forces of Ukraine hit three drilling platforms of the Lukoil corporation in the Caspian Sea, named Vladimir Filanovsky, Yuri Korchagin, and Valery Greifer. These facilities are involved in providing support to the Russian occupation army,” the General Staff said. It added that “direct hits have been recorded” and that the extent of the damage was being assessed. According to Ukraine’s military news website, Militarnyi, NASA FIRMS satellite fire-monitoring data show no signs of fire at the V. Filanovsky platform. A similar situation applies to the Yuri Korchagin and Valery Greifer platforms. This suggests that the drones might have hit the hulls without igniting or depressurising oil or gas products. According to the Ukrainian military, these facilities stopped operations after the attacks. The Russian Ministry of Defence did not confirm the attacks. However, it did say that seven drones were allegedly intercepted over the Caspian Sea. This was not the first attack on Lukoil’s offshore oil and gas platforms. The first attack was on the Vladimir Filanovsky oil and gas field last month. V. Filanovsky field is the largest oil field discovered in the Russian sector of the Caspian Sea, with initial recoverable reserves estimated at 129m tonnes of oil and 30 bcm of gas. Commercial production began in 2016 and reached its plateau level of 6 m tonnes per year in 2018. Yury Korchagin was the first field developed by Lukoil in the Caspian Sea, with commercial operation beginning in 2010. Its reserves are estimated at 77.8m tonnes of oil. Valery Grayfer, formerly known as the Rakushechnoye field, is the third major Caspian project developed by Lukoil. Production at this field began in 2023, with a planned annual production rate of 1.2m tonnes of oil. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1_95_0_1_2'); }); TagsRussia Ukraine