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The biggest refinery in southern Russia and a major gas processing plant controlled by Gazprom were hit by a massive attack of Ukrainian drones on Monday, officials from Ukraine and Russia said.
Lukoil’s refinery in Volgograd, which is southern Russia’s biggest with 300,000-bpd processing capacity, was hit, regional governor Andrey Bocharov said on Telegram.
“As a result of the falling debris, non-spreading fires broke out on the site of an oil refinery, which were quickly localized,” the governor added.
Separately, drones hit a Gazprom gas processing plant in the Astrakhan region in Russia, a Ukrainian security official told Reuters.
Russia says that a fire was contained at the Gazprom processing plant.
Ukraine has intensified attacks with drones on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks.
For example, Ukraine last week hit with drones an oil refinery near Nizhny Novgorod in western Russia, announcing a second hit at a Russian oil refinery in less than a week. Units of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, in cooperation with other components of the defense forces, struck on the night of January 29 Lukoil’s Norsi refinery in Kstovo, in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia’s sixth-largest city.
The strike at the Norsi facility was the second in less than a week, after Ukraine hit earlier in January a major Russian oil refinery in Ryazan, causing significant damage and disrupting operations.
The overnight attack set a 20,000-ton oil storage tank ablaze and damaged vital infrastructure, including a hydrotreater and railway loading rack. This refinery, which processes 262,000 bpd—nearly 5% of Russia’s refining capacity—ground to a halt.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and other energy infrastructure have become a fixture, with drones the weapon of choice for conducting the strikes.
As Ukraine continues to target refineries in Russia, some of these attacks have affected fuel product supply from Russian refineries and reduced crude processing rates.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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