Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, located in the Rostov region, was hit by two drones in June, after which production at both primary crude oil distillation units was suspended. The attack caused an explosion that burst into flames, Russian news agency TASS reported at the time, damaging the refinery’s crude oil tank. Russian police had said the drones were Ukrainian. Novoshakhtinsk has a capacity of up to 7.5 million tons per year, making it one of the largest oil refineries in southern Russia. Ukraine has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attack. The drone was one of several attacks on Russia’s oil and gas operations since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Also in June, Ukraine reportedly attacked offshore oil and gas drilling platforms in the Black Sea, the head of Russia-imposed Crimea said. Ukraine has accused Russia of strikes that were too close to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, using the term “nuclear terrorism.” Russia, however, said Ukraine carried out artillery strikes near Zaporizhia. A tight market for refined products and shrinking global refining capacity have put increased scrutiny on potential refinery outages as inventories of diesel and other end products dwindle. The restart of Russia’s refinery, which processed 5.2 million tonnes of crude oil last year, will give Russia additional markets for its crude as many of its usual customers try to curb Russian crude imports. Europe currently has a plan to cut off 90 percent of Russian crude oil imports by the end of this year in order to limit Russia’s access to oil revenues. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More top reads from Oilprice.com:
