Ukrainian Drones Strike Saratov and Novokuibyshev Refineries, Causing Fires on Territory of Plants

On the night of September 20th, the Ukrainian Defense Forces struck the Saratov and Novokuibyshevsk oil refineries in Russia. A fire broke out on the territory of both enterprises.

Videos and photos from the scene are published by a number of Telegram channels.

This is the sixth time the Saratov refinery has been hit (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). This time, according to Cyberboroshno’s OSINT analysts, the attack targeted an overpass on the refinery’s territory.

An overpass is a special elevated platform that plays a key role in the process of loading and unloading oil and oil products.

Its main purpose is to ensure the efficient, safe and controlled transportation of fuel to rail or road tankers.

The Saratov Oil Refinery is one of the largest industrial facilities in Russia for oil refining and production of gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, road and roofing bitumen, vacuum gas oil and industrial sulfur.

The company is owned by Rosneft. As of 2024, it processed about 5.8 million tons of oil, which is 2.2% of the total refining volume in Russia.

At the Novokuibyshevsk refinery in Samara, the ELOU-AVT-11 unit was likely hit.

This is the third attack on the refinery, following the attacks on March 10th and August 2nd this year.

The Elou-AVT-11 is a primary oil processing unit. It consists of two parts: ELOU – for electric dehydration and electric desalination, and AVT – for atmospheric vacuum distillation.

The Novokuibyshevsk Oil Refinery is one of the largest oil refineries in Russia and is part of Rosneft.

The plant’s capacity is 8.8 million tons of crude oil per year (approximately 176 thousand barrels per day). This makes it one of the ten largest oil refineries in Russia in terms of refining volumes.