"The situation is very serious": Ukraine may have knocked out half of Russia's petrol production
A new wave of attacks, which has affected most of Russia's major refineries over the past two weeks, threatens to plunge Russia back into a fuel crisis, with queues at petrol stations and restrictions on how much fuel motorists can buy.
Source: The Moscow Times, an independent Amsterdam-based news outlet
Details: Ukraine's campaign, which began in late October and targeted a number of Russia's largest oil refineries, may have paralysed facilities responsible for producing around 55% of all petrol in the country, says Sergei Vakulenko, a senior research fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre in Berlin.
He says that the reserves accumulated during the relatively calm month of October may be enough to cover approximately one week's consumption.
Over the past two weeks, all five of Russia's largest oil refineries have come under drone attacks. On 11 November, drones attacked the Omsk oil refinery, with an annual capacity of 22 million tonnes, and on 9 November, the Kinef refinery in Leningrad Oblast, which has a capacity of 21 million tonnes.
On 5 and 3 November, respectively, UAVs struck two major refineries supplying fuel to Moscow: the Ryazan oil refinery, with a capacity of 17 million tonnes, and Slavneft-YANOS, with an annual capacity of 15 million tonnes.
On 1 November, drones attacked Lukoil's refinery near Nizhny Novgorod, with a capacity of 17 million tonnes. It is Russia's second-largest producer of motor petrol. On 13 November, the Volgograd oil refinery, with a capacity of 14 million tonnes, was also attacked.
Other targets for drones included Rosneft's Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery, with an annual capacity of 8.3 million tonnes; the Ufimsky refinery plant, with a capacity of 6.6 million tonnes; and the Afipsky Oil Refinery, with a capacity of 7.2 million tonnes.
The Russian expert believes that November 2026 may have marked the point at which trouble and inconvenience "turn into serious problems".
Background:
- Russia's oil refining capacity has fallen by about 30% since Ukraine renewed drone attacks on Russian refineries in late October.
- Rosneft, Russia's largest oil producer by output, subsequently introduced limits on fuel sales at its petrol stations across all regions of the country.
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