Russia’s Factbox-Rostov, taken over by rebels, is a major commodity hub

By Polina Devitt and Dmitry Zhdannikov

LONDON (Reuters) – Below are data on oil, gas and grain flows in Russia’s southern Rostov region, where Russian mercenaries seized the capital Rostov-on-Don.

President Vladimir Putin vowed on Saturday to crush what he called an armed mutiny after rebel mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said he had seized control of Rostov-on-Don.

GRAIN

Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, with Rostov being the second largest grain-producing region and home to the Don River ports that connect grain-exporting ships to the Azov Sea.

“The scale of the risks is unknown at the moment. It all depends on how the situation develops. For now, everything continues to work as before,” said Andrey Sizov, director of agricultural consultancy Sovecon.

“But the timing, of course, is inconvenient,” Sizov said, referring to the start of the harvest in the region in about a week.

So far, fighters from Prigozhin’s private Wagner militia appear to have taken control only of the region’s main city, Rostov-on-Don, and are advancing north across western Russia.

Russia’s main grain export terminals on the Black Sea are further south, and this area has not been affected by developments so far.

The main Black Sea port, Novorossiisk, continues to operate as usual, two grain industry sources told Reuters on Saturday.

Russia is forecast to export 46.5 million tonnes of wheat in the new 2023/24 marketing season beginning July 1, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).

PETROLEUM GAS

The Rostov region is not a large energy producer, but several large oil and gas pipelines run through its territory. Russia is the second largest oil exporter in the world after Saudi Arabia.

One such pipeline, Kuibyshev-Tikhoretsk, can supply 0.8 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil to the Krasnodar region’s Novorossiisk port, Russia’s biggest oil-export port on the Black Sea.

Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft controls many pumping stations along the route, including in the Rostov region.

Rostov is also home to a medium-sized oil refinery, Novoshakhtinsk, which can process 0.1 million bpd.

According to Russian media, several oil tanks caught fire on Sunday in the Voronezh region, but they are not of great importance for export.