Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Port of Novorossiysk is located on the northeast coast of the Black Sea, inside the Tsemes Bay (also called Novorossiysk Bay) in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The bay is ice-free and navigable year-round, though bora winds occasionally halt navigation in winter.
The berthing line at Novorossiysk Sea Port is 8.3 kilometers long, making it the longest among all ports in Russia. By 2017 the port had 89 berths with a total length of 15,627 meters.
The port's origins trace to a fortress established on the 12th of September 1838, renamed Novorossiysk by order of the Minister of War on the 14th of January 1839. A royal decree signed on the 30th of June 1845 authorized construction of a trade port, and the first vessel sailed from the new facility on the 8th of August 1888.
The Sheskharis oil terminal is a major oil transshipment facility at the Port of Novorossiysk, initiated in 1960 under resolutions supervised by Nikita Khrushchev. By 2012 it accounted for more than 30 percent of Russian oil exports and could simultaneously process 7 tankers, with berth No. 1 capable of handling vessels up to 250,000 tons deadweight.
The Nobel brothers were among the first to establish oil transfer operations at the Port of Novorossiysk, managing oil storages, a 95-meter pipeline, pumps, a discharge jetty for tank cars, and a berth for tankers. One of their riveted tanks remained in operational use at the port until 1988.
Ukraine attacked the port multiple times using drones and missiles. On the 4th of August 2023 a sea drone carrying 450 kilograms of TNT struck the Russian Navy ship Olenegorsky Gornyak. In November 2025 attacks damaged the Sheskharis oil terminal's pumping stations, tankers, and pipelines, halting oil exports. In December 2025 an underwater drone was used against the submarine B-271 Kolpino, which the UK Ministry of Defence assessed as likely significantly damaged.