Russia's refineries suffer massive losses and face closure – Reuters

Russian oil refineries are forced to stop processing or reduce volumes due to heavy losses amid export restrictions, rising crude oil prices, and high borrowing costs, as well as drone attacks. Currently, there are at least three such enterprises in the Russian Federation that have faced difficulties: the Tuapse, Ilya, and Novoshakhtyn refineries.

The suspension of refinery operations sheds light on the extent to which the aggressor country's oil refining industry is suffering, which has been targeted by Ukrainian drones and Western sanctions that force refineries to sell fuel at a discount. Reuters writes about this, citing five informed sources.

"The crisis is cutting fuel exports and lowering company revenues, generating less cash for the state budget amid high inflation and uncertainty in energy markets already worried about weak demand," the article says.

Russia's least modern refineries were hit hardest. Some of the more developed refineries also operated at a small loss, while others were able to make a modest profit due to steady sales of light fuel, the sources said.

"Rosneft has been forced to suspend refining several times this year at its large Tuapse refinery on the Black Sea. The smaller independent Ilya and Novoshakhtyn refineries in southern Russia have been operating at half their nominal capacity for several months.

All three refineries were attacked by Ukrainian drones earlier this year, contributing to the poor performance.

Earlier, we wrote that three refineries in Russia were forced to partially shut down due to problems with the repair of foreign equipment that lacks parts.

Among these refineries is the Volgograd refinery, which has repeatedly been the target of drone attacks. In addition, the Ilyich and Yaysk refineries failed to complete scheduled repairs in October and extended the downtime of individual units for the entire month of November.

As reported by OBOZ.UA:

– On the night of November 8, drones of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine attacked an oil refinery in Saratov, Russia. The attack on the enterprise, which is part of the Rosneft corporation, was recognized by local authorities.

– On the night of November 12, the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation reported a drone attack on an oil depot in Stary Oskol. The information was later confirmed by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and a fuel and lubricant depot of the Russian occupiers was hit.

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