(Reuters) – Ukrainian drones attacked Taneco, Russia’s third largest oil refinery, on Tuesday about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the front lines, hitting a core unit which processes about 155,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude.
As of the end of March, around 14% of Russia’s primary oil refining capacity had been knocked out by Ukrainian drone attacks, according to Reuters calculations.
Which refineries have been targeted, what damage have they sustained and what do they produce?
TANECO
A fire broke out at the refinery and was extinguished within 20 minutes, state news agency RIA said. Production has not been disrupted, RIA news agency said.
The drone hit the refinery’s primary oil refining unit, CDU-7, one of two, according Reuters analysis of pictures posted on media.
The unit accounts for around a half of the plant’s total annual production capacity of more than 17 million tons (340,000 bpd).
In 2023, it processed 17.030 million tons of crude oil, the third largest volume among Russian refineries after Omsk and Kirishi.
In March it processed 47,000 tons (344,000 bpd) of oil per day.
KUIBYSHEV
Regional Governor Dmitry Azarov said a fire broke out at the Kuibyshev refinery after a Ukrainian drone attacked it on March 23, according to Interfax news agency. The blaze engulfed the primary oil refining unit, he said.
According to industry sources, the Rosneft-owned refinery near the city of Samara on the Volga river halted all production as a result of damage from the Ukrainian drone attack.
Last year, the Kuibyshev plant was Russia’s 29th biggest oil refinery by output, accounting for 1.34% of total oil refining throughput, having processed 3.687 million tons of crude oil.
It produced 624,000 tons of gasoline (1.42% of Russia’s total), 1.187 million tons of diesel (1.35%) and 1.040 million tons of fuel oil (2.56%).
RYAZAN
Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery, also owned and run by Rosneft, was set ablaze after a drone attack on March 13.
The plant, with installed capacity of around 350,000 barrels per day, refines about 12.7 million metric tons of Russian crude a year (around 317,000 barrels per day), or 5.8% of Russia’s total refined crude, according to industry sources.
It had initially shut down two damaged primary oil refining units after a fire, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. Rosneft did not reply to a request for comment.
Ryazan also halted its main crude distillation unit AVT-6 with a capacity of 170,00 barrels of crude per day (47.5% of the plant’s total crude intake capacity), and a smaller CDU AVT-4 capable of refining about 84,000 barrels of crude per day (23.4% of the plant’s total intake capacity), the sources said.
The plant subsequently resumed operations at CDU AVT-4 this week, increasing total crude intake to 60% of normal capacity or 169,000 bpd, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
NOVOSHAKHTINSK
The Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, in Russia’s southern Rostov region, suspended operations on March 13 after downed drones crashed onto the site, but resumed later in the day. However it is not known whether the normal processing level was maintained.
Oil processing at the refinery in 2023 averaged around 96,000 barrels per day, according to industry sources. The plant produces no motor fuels for the domestic market. Its production is limited to straight-run fractions for exports.
NORSI
A fire broke out at NORSI, Russia’s fourth largest refinery, after a Ukrainian drone attack, Russian officials said on March 12. It is located near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, 430 km (270 miles) east of Moscow. Owned by Lukoil, its formal name is Lukoil Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez.
NORSI refines about 15.8 million tons of Russian crude a year (317,000 barrels per day), or 5.8% of total refined crude, according to industry sources.
Its main crude distillation unit (AVT-6) was damaged, which means that at least half of the refinery’s output has been halted, industry sources told Reuters.
In 2023 NORSI produced about 4.9 million tons of gasoline – 11% of Russia’s total, 6.4% of diesel fuel, 5.6% of fuel oil and 7.4% of aviation fuel, industry sources said.
Lukoil said in January that it had halted a unit at the refinery due to an unspecified incident.
Industry sources said before the March 12 drone attack that one of two catalytic crackers remained out of action at the plant.
KIRISHI
The governor of the northern Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko, said on March 12 that a Ukrainian drone had been destroyed on the outskirts of Kirishi, home to Surgutneftegaz’s Kirishinefteorgsintez (KINEF) refinery.
The Kirishi complex is one of the top two refineries in Russia. It refines about 17.7 million tons per year (355,000 barrels per day) of Russian crude, or 6.4% of the total, according to industry sources.
It produces about 2.3 million tons of gasoline – 5.3% of Russia’s total, 7.6% of diesel fuel, 16.3% of fuel oil and 3.4% of aviation fuel, according to industry sources.
SYZRAN
Russia’s Syzran oil refinery, controlled by Rosneft, burned for hours on March 16 before it was brought under control after a strike by Ukrainian drones. One of its two CDU units was damaged due to the fire, according to Reuters sources.
The Syzran refinery has production capacity of 8.5 million metric tons of crude oil a year, or 170,000 barrels per day (bpd), but its actual runs have been lower. In 2023 it processed just 5 million metric tons of crude oil, about 100,000 bpd.
The refinery produced about 1 million tons of gasoline in 2023 – 2.2% of Russia’s total, and 1.78 million metric tons of diesel fuel, about 2% of total, according to industry sources and Reuters calculations.
A Ukrainian source told Reuters that drones launched by Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency had targeted three Samara region Rosneft refineries: Syzran, Novokuibyshev and Kuibyshev.
The attack on the Novokuibyshev plant was thwarted, according to the local governor.
SLAVYANSK
On March 18, the Slavyansk refinery in the southern Krasnodar region caught fire after a drone attack. The blaze was extinguished and there were no casualties, the district administration said.
Roman Siniagovskyi, head of the Slavyansk administrative district, said on Telegram refinery workers had been evacuated and there was no threat to nearby populated areas.
Slavyansk refinery is a private plant with a capacity of 4 million metric tons of oil per year, about 1 million bpd.
KALUGA
Ukraine attacked an oil refinery in the Kaluga region south of Moscow with drones early on March 15, causing damage in an operation that was conducted by the GUR military spy agency, a Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters.
The privately owned Kaluga refinery, some 65 km (40 miles) from the outskirts of Moscow, is not one of Russia’s important oil facilities. It says its primary processing unit’s capacity is 1.2 million tons per year – roughly 24,000 barrels per day.
Vladislav Shapsha, Kaluga’s regional governor, said on Telegram that air defences had shot down four drones in the area where the refinery is located and that there had been no infrastructural damage or casualties.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by David Evans, Mark Heinrich and Sonali Paul)
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