14% of Russian refining capacity offline as Ukrainian drones head further inland

Ukrainian forces hit Russia’s third-largest oil refinery with a drone strike on Tuesday but with no critical damage.

This time the target was a unit of the Taneco refinery in Tatarstan. The refinery is a long way from the front lines, some 1,300 km away from Ukraine’s border with Russia.

The Taneco refinery has a total capacity of 340,000 barrels per day. The main unit which was the target of the attack processes about 155,000 barrels of crude per day.

According to Reuters calculations, around 14% of Russia’s refining capacity has been shut down by drone attacks in recent months. A Ukrainian source told the media outlet that the strike on the primary refining unit refinery caused a fire and that such attacks were intended to reduce Russia’s oil revenue.

For now, the impact of the attacks on oil product exports from Russia still appears limited, as the capacity of export-oriented refineries impacted is approximately 200,000 barrels per day.

Shipbroker BRS said today it remains to be seen whether a fundamental export disruption will follow.

BRS said much would depend on the ability of other refineries in Russia to ramp up utilisation rates to make up for part of the shortfall from unplanned outages.

Volatility in exports can be seen with the mismatch between Russia’s exports and global imports from Russia growing larger in April and exercising further downward pressure on gasoil/diesel crack margins, despite the rise in crude oil prices.

This most recent attack comes just a few weeks after the Ukrainian military conducted a drone strike on the Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, while a host of export facilities on the Black and Baltic seas have been targeted too.