Russia’s largest oil refinery has halted operations following a drone attack
Russia’s largest oil refinery, the Omsk Refinery, owned by Gazprom Neft, has halted crude oil processing following a drone attack on 6 July. Reuters reported this, citing two independent sources in the fuel industry.
Anatoly Seryshev, the Russian President’s authorised representative in the Siberian Federal District, confirmed that facilities on the plant’s premises were damaged as a result of the attack. He said that no employees had been injured and that the relevant services were working at the scene. Meanwhile, Gazprom Neft has not responded to enquiries from Reuters.
According to the agency’s sources, the AVT 10 primary oil refinery unit, which accounted for around 38 per cent of the plant’s production capacity – or approximately 24,500 tonnes of crude processed per day – was damaged and caught fire during the attack.
The AVT 11 unit, designed to process 24,000 tonnes of crude oil per day and 3,400 tonnes of gas condensate, was also shut down as an emergency measure. According to sources speaking to Reuters, the unit itself was not damaged, but the inter-workshop pipelines required for its operation were damaged. It is expected to resume processing in the near future.
According to Reuters, the plant’s management could, in theory, attempt to resume operations by starting up two older primary refining units. However, the timeframe and technical feasibility of bringing them online remain unknown for the time being.
Since Tuesday, the Omsk Oil Refinery, which accounts for around 8 per cent of Russia’s total oil refining capacity, has suspended the sale of wholesale consignments of motor petrol and diesel fuel on the St Petersburg Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange.
The plant is located approximately 2,500 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Prior to this attack, the Omsk Refinery was the last of Russia’s largest oil refineries to remain undamaged. In May, the ‘Kirishinefteorgsintez’ plant in the Leningrad Region and the Ryazan Oil Refinery were attacked, whilst in June, Lukoil’s ‘Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez’ and ‘Taneco’ in Nizhnekamsk were hit.
Last year, the Omsk refinery processed 22 million tonnes of crude oil. The plant produced 5 million tonnes of petrol, 8 million tonnes of diesel fuel and around 500,000 tonnes of boiler fuel.
