Russia’s 4th-Largest Oil Refinery Halts Processing After Drone Strike

LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery by capacity and its second-largest gasoline producer, has stopped processing crude oil following a Ukrainian drone strike.

Three industry sources told Reuters that the attack damaged several processing units, equipment connecting the units, and other refinery facilities.

The sources could not say how long it would take to repair the damage and resume oil refining at the plant.

The refinery, located in the city of Kstovo in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, was hit in the early hours of August 26.

Video recorded by local residents showed several fires burning at the facility.

After previous attacks, LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez had already suspended operations because of damage to its processing equipment. One of the attacks took place on July 2.

The Kstovo refinery has a maximum annual capacity of about 17 million tonnes of crude oil.

Before the Ukrainian strikes, the refinery could produce around 5 million tonnes of gasoline, more than 5 million tonnes of diesel, 2 million tonnes of fuel oil, and about 500,000 tonnes of bitumen each year. Overall, the refinery produced more than 50 types of petroleum products.

Following a Ukrainian strike on August 21, LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez, Russia’s seventh-largest refinery by oil-processing capacity, suspended operations at its plant in the city of Perm.

The drone attack caused a fire and damaged processing equipment at the AVT-4 crude oil distillation unit, which accounts for nearly 40% of the refinery’s total capacity. Before the damage, the unit could process 14,000 metric tonnes of crude oil per day.

Another crude oil distillation unit, AVT-5, which accounts for 34% of the refinery’s total capacity, has remained offline since a drone attack on July 29.