The cause of the fire is due to an “external incident”, according to the management at the gas plant. According to Governor Alexander Drozdenko, no one should be injured after the fire. The employees at the terminal were evacuated, according to Drozdenko.
The gas terminal Novatek is located in Ust-Luga on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, and the company has close ties to President Vladimir Putin. The terminal is 35 kilometers from the border with Estonia.
Production at the plant has been halted as a result of the fire.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline runs from this terminal to Germany, but it has not been operational since it was sabotaged in September 2022.
Must have seen drones in the sky before the fire
The port and the surrounding district are on full alert, according to the governor. The fire started just before 3 o’clock last night on Sunday local time.
The port and the surrounding district are on full alert. But earlier in the week, drones were shot down over the region, according to Russia. Drones were also seen last night, according to several Russian media.
SWITCHING OFF: Governor Alexander Drozdenk has published this photo on Telegram.
Photo: HANDOUT / AFP
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that Ukrainian attacks had been repelled during the night, but did not mention any incidents in the Leningrad region, writes AFP.
Russian media say residents of the city should have heard a drone and several explosions. Other eyewitnesses are said to have seen drones in the air heading towards St. Petersburg before a fire was reported at the facility.
I think there were two explosions
The Russian news agency RIA writes that the fire was triggered by two explosions.
Since it broke out, the fire has been limited to a 100 cubic meter fuel depot, writes RIA further.
The terminal belongs to the Russian oil company Novatek, which is one of Russia’s largest oil and gas companies. Here, among other things, natural gas is converted into jet fuel.
On Thursday, a Ukrainian security source claimed that they were behind an attack on an oil warehouse in the region. Russia has not commented on this, other than the drone shootings in the region which they reported on the same day.
2024-01-21 10:04:37
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