Russian refineries attacked by Ukrainian drones. Kiev tries to reduce Russian oil exports
Ukraine's security service SBU carried out operations in southern Russia, attacking two Russian oil refineries with drones and causing a large fire at one of the facilities, a Ukrainian source told Reuters on Friday.
Drone attacks caused a large fire at the Ilsky refinery in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.
Russian authorities said the fire had been put out, without specifying the cause. There are also images spread via Telegram relating to the attacks
Drones launched from Ukraine damaged the primary processing unit of the Ilsky refinery, an anonymous Ukrainian source told Reuters.
The nearby Afipsky oil refinery was also targeted by Ukrainian drones, but Ukraine is still assessing the outcome of the operation, according to the source who spoke to Reuters.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian refineries and other energy infrastructure.
Last month, a large refinery of Russian state oil giant Rosneft in southern Russia was damaged by fire following a suspected Ukrainian drone attack. The 240,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Tuapse was hit by a fire that was the result of a drone attack by Ukrainian security services, a Ukrainian source told Reuters.
“The SBU strikes deep into the Russian Federation and continues to attack facilities that are not only important for the Russian economy, but also supply fuel to enemy troops,” the source told Reuters.
The Tuapse refinery mainly exports its production of naphtha, high sulfur diesel, fuel oil and vacuum gas oil to Turkey, China, Malaysia and Singapore.
The drone attack on the Rosneft refinery in southern Russia came just days after another suspected drone attack forced Russian gas firm Novatek to suspend operations at a fuel export terminal in the Baltic Sea.
The attacks and damage to Russian refineries have reduced Russia's ability to process crude oil, which has led to a surge in Russian crude exports, according to industry data and analyst estimates reported by Reuters. The increase in crude exports could undermine the export cuts that Moscow has committed to making this quarter as part of the OPEC+ agreement, but otherwise they do not limit Russia's ability to place oil on the international market.
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The article Russian refineries attacked by Ukrainian drones. Kiev attempts to reduce Russian oil exports comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/raffinerie-russe-attaccate-da-droni-ucraini-kiev-tenta-di-ridurre-lexport-petrolifero-russo/ on Sat, 10 Feb 2024 08:00:09 +0000.