A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a Rosneft-owned oil refinery at the Black Sea port of Tuapse, according to Russian reports.
Ukrainian drone strikes have hit the plant at least three times this year during waves of attacks aimed at Russian infrastructure.
The refinery, one of key Russian refineries close to Ukrainian territory and just 240 km from occupied Crimea, was also attacked in February 2023, prompting authorities to improve air defences in the area.
The refinery was “damaged as a result of falling UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] debris”, according to emergency officials in the Krasnodar territory where Tuapse is located.
The fire was limited to an area of 50 square metres and was put out early on Monday, according to a statement on Telegram. There were no casualties, said officials.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have shot down 75 drones overnight, including eight over Krasnodar.
A wave of attacks targeting Russian refineries earlier this year led to a decline in output, with more crude being redirected for export.
Russian oil product exports averaged 3.1m barrels per day in 2021 and 3m bpd in 2022 but have declined over the past year, partly because of the drone attacks but also because of sanctions-related impacts.
Exports fell to a low of 2.5m bpd in April before reaching 2.6m bpd last month, according to the International Energy Agency.
Oil processed in June fell slightly to 5.2m bpd, “in part due to continued drone attacks and fires at Russian refineries”, it said in its most recent monthly oil report.
The agency cited attacks at three refineries smaller than Tuapse that caused potentially prolonged outages.
However, it said that previous reports of likely heavy disruption in the second quarter of 2024 were only partly confirmed by export data.
The impact on production at Tuapse was not immediately clear. It has a refining capacity of 240,000 bpd.
Read more
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