One million Ukrainians without electricity after Russian attacks
Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have left around a million people in Ukraine without power . An effect of the combined use of Zircon hypersonic missiles and the scarcity of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defenses.
Ukraine's largest private grid operator, DTEK, reported, as quoted by Al Jazeera, that five of the six power plants it operates were damaged, with 80% of their generating capacity lost. So, despite Ukraine being integrated into the Western European grid, the energy system has not fully held up. Yet, as Reuters notes, energy imports had already increased in recent days.
The power company also said that 180,000 people were left without power in the Odessa region following a Russian attack. “These attacks are, in the Kremlin's words, revenge for attacks Ukraine has conducted deep into Russia, targeting its energy facilities and oil installations,” said Al Jazeera journalist Charles Stratford.
A response to the attacks on Russian refineries
The United States has urged Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian refineries, fearing that any Russian retaliation could cause a surge in crude prices. Rising crude oil prices, which lead to higher gasoline prices, are problematic for sitting U.S. presidents in election years.
Last week, about 1.4% of Russia's refining capacity was knocked out by Ukrainian drone attacks, which translates to about 900,000 barrels per day. JP Morgan had previously estimated that disruptions to Russia's refining capacity could add a significant risk premium to the middle distillates market, predicting that it would take weeks or even months to restore capacity.
The bank's analysts estimated this risk premium at $4 a barrel.
Brent continues to rise, meanwhile, and Russian developments are one of the factors pushing prices. Furthermore, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said late last week that in the future Russia will focus more on reducing oil production rather than exports, as it has done in previous months, to comply with OPEC+'s effort to reduce supply and increase prices. Idle refining capacity is at least part of the reason for this decision, as Russia does not have large storage capacity for crude oil.
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The article One million Ukrainians without electricity after Russian attacks comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/un-milione-di-ucraini-senza-energia-elettrica-dopo-gli-attacchi-russi/ on Mon, 01 Apr 2024 18:56:26 +0000.