A report has claimed the US is calling on Ukraine to halt its drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
Three sources cited by the Financial Times claim the Biden administration fears the effect of the refinery strikes on oil prices.
Officials are also wary of retaliation, the report said.
Warnings have been delivered to Ukraine’s state security service and its military intelligence directorate.
Ukraine has claimed at least 12 attacks on major Russian refineries since 2022.
One source said that the White House had become frustrated by strikes that had hurt oil production capacity across western Russia.
Oil prices have risen about 15% this year to $85 a barrel.
The US also does not want Russia to retaliate by hitting the energy infrastructure needed by Western countries.
This includes the CPC pipeline in the Black Sea that carries Kazakh and Russian oil exports to a terminal near Novorossiysk in the Black Sea.
Helima Croft, a former CIA analyst at RBC Capital Markets, has noted that Ukraine has demonstrated it could target infrastructure accounting for about 60% of Russia’s exports.
TradeWinds has reported that a slew of Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries in recent days has raised questions about how long the country can continue exporting petrochemical products.
Analysts believe that if Ukraine continues its successful attacks on refineries, Russia might switch from being an exporter to an importer, which would create havoc for the fleet of product tankers now carrying its exports from ports in the Baltic and Black seas.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, Russia had 5.4m barrels per day of crude refining capacity from more than 25 refineries at the end of December 2022.
Production levels are believed to have declined due to maintenance issues caused by the lack of spare parts that can no longer be acquired due to sanctions.
