Drone Strikes Halt Nearly 40% of Russia’s Oil Refining Capacity

Nearly 40% of Russia’s oil refining capacity has been shut down, largely due to regular strikes by Ukrainian long-range drones.

The Moscow Times reported on this.

There is also a growing shortage of gasoline at fuel stations across the aggressor country’s regions.

According to the quantitative data agency Ciala, as of September 28, 38% of primary oil refining capacity at refineries across Russia was idle — capacity that could process 338,000 tons of crude oil per day.

“The total volume of capacity available for the production of gasoline and diesel fuel dropped by 6% in August and by another 18% in September. The scale of refinery shutdowns has become historically unprecedented,” the journalists report.

It is noted that approximately 70% of the shutdowns were the result of drone attacks: by the end of September, they had disabled about a quarter of Russia’s oil refining capacity, or around 236,000 tons per day, according to the agency’s estimates.

As a result, gasoline production in September dropped by 1 million tons, and the domestic market faced a shortage equivalent to 20% of consumption, a source familiar with the situation told Kommersant.

In particular, in September, the gasoline shortage in Russia reached approximately 400,000 tons out of the standard monthly supply of two million tons, according to one market participant. As a result, many gas stations were forced to shut down.

Fuel Crisis

The fuel crisis has hit the Far East and temporarily occupied Crimea the hardest, where, since the beginning of the week, the sale of more than 30 liters of gasoline per person has been banned. In total, more than 20 regions, from Sakhalin to the Nizhny Novgorod region, have faced fuel shortages, the publication clarified.

It was also noted that Russian oil companies can do little to ease the crisis. This is due to the fact that repairing individual refinery equipment can take months, especially given the sanctions that have banned the supply of Western equipment, which was used to modernize these plants in the 2010s, and cannot be easily replaced with Chinese alternatives.

In an attempt to extinguish the fire on the gasoline market, the government of the aggressor country banned its export and prepared to begin purchasing fuel abroad. The fuel shortage threatens to accelerate inflation and drive up prices in the Russian economy.

In particular, during the night of September 26, Ukrainian drones struck the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. A fire broke out at the site following the attack.