Fire rages on at Russian oil depot serving Caspian pipeline after drone attack

(Reuters) -A fire at a drone-hit oil depot in southern Russia raged for a fifth day on Monday, the regional administration said, as firefighters tried to contain the blaze at the facility that delivers Russian crude to the Caspian pipeline.

Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind the drone attack on March 19, saying Kyiv was violating a proposed ceasefire on attacks on energy sites.

The depot is located just a few kilometres apart from the Kropotkinskaya pumping station of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which was also hit by a drone last month, sparking fears of a drop in oil supplies in global markets.

The depot is key for Russia's oil exports via the CPC, which mainly transports Kazakhstan's oil exports.

The attacks occurred amid efforts, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. So far, the flows via CPC have not been interrupted, according to CPC.

The local administration said on Telegram that the fire at the depot near the village of Kavkazskaya in the southern Krasnodar region covered an area of around 2,000 square metres (21,500 square feet) as of Sunday evening.

Reuters has verified the satellite imagery showing Kavkazskaya depot burning on March 23. It shows black smoke billowing from the reservoirs at the station.

The oil complex includes a railway loading rack at the Getmanovskaya station and a pipeline to the Kropotkinskaya station.

According to CPC, last year suppliers delivered at least 130,000 tons of oil per month via Kavkazskaya, with volumes totalling around 1.51 million tons for the year as a whole.

Separately, Russia's defence ministry reported on Monday that a Ukrainian drone was downed by Russian anti-aircraft units and crashed approximately 7 kilometres away from the Kropotkinskaya pumping station, near the Kavkazskaya railway station, underscoring continuation of the attacks on the facilities.

Ukrainian drones have repeatedly targeted Russian energy infrastructure in recent months, including in the Krasnodar region.

The CPC pipeline carries some Russian crude and is the main export route for Kazakhstan, which supplies about 1% of the world's oil. Its main shareholders include a number of Western oil majors, such as Chevron, Shell and Eni.

Exports via the CPC pipeline have been set at 1.7 million barrels per day for April, in line with the preliminary March plan.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Susan Fenton)