Oil Refinery Burns in Saratov After Drone Attack

Strike drones attacked an oil refinery in the city of Saratov, causing a large-scale fire.

According to the Astra, the attack on the refinery took place at three in the morning. 

According to local residents, it was accompanied by dozens of explosions, after which thick black smoke rose into the sky.

The scale of the fire was also confirmed by NASA satellites, which recorded the fire. According to their data, the fire was spotted at 03:54, and according to new photos and videos, it is still going on.

The Saratov Oil Refinery is currently one of Russia’s largest industrial facilities 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.

This is not the first attack on the refinery. On February 11, 2025, the territory of the enterprise was already attacked by a UAV. At that time, the governor of Saratov region, Roman Busargin, confirmed the damage to the industrial facility, without specifying which plant was hit.

Another drone attack took place on January 14, 2025, and resulted in a massive fire.

Previously, Militarnyi reported that an attack by Ukrainian attack drones on August 2 put two of Rosneft’s largest oil refineries out of commission.

Rosneft’s largest refinery, the Ryazan Oil Refining Company, suspended operations at about half of its capacity, while the Novokuibyshevsky refinery has been completely shut down since August 2.

The Ryazan refinery with a capacity of 13.7 million tons of oil per year is the largest in Rosneft’s structure, one of the top 5 largest in Russia and supplies fuel, in particular, to the Moscow region. In 2024, this refinery processed 13.1 million tons of oil, accounting for 4.9% of the total oil refining in Russia.

Currently, the Ryazan refinery operates a primary oil processing unit KSU-6 with a capacity of 23,200 tons per day, which is about 48% of the total capacity.