Ukraine said it struck two major fuel-producing facilities and an oil pumping station in Russia, adding more pressure on the nation’s refinery runs that hit multi-year lows in April.
Drones hit an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, about 282 kilometers (175 miles) northeast of Moscow, overnight, according to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. There were also fresh strikes on the Permnefteorgsintez refinery in Perm and a nearby oil pumping station, both about 1,500 kilometers east of the Russian capital, and hit earlier in the week, the country’s Security Service SBU said on Telegram.
A fire broke out at one of the crude-processing units at the refinery and a reservoir tank was hit at the station, it added.
The refineries are among Russia’s 10 biggest fuel-producing facilities. The Yaroslavl plant, which is co-owned by Rosneft PJSC and Gazprom Neft PJSC, can process around 300,000 barrels per day. The Perm refinery, owned by Lukoil PJSC, has the capacity for about 260,000 barrels. The Perm pumping station is on the Russian trunk pipeline network that moves crude from western Siberia into central Russia, as well as Lukoil’s refinery.
Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure this spring, targeting assets from refineries to sea terminals, almost daily, to reduce the windfall revenues that Moscow is reaping from the current global oil rally. The April attacks have cut average daily runs at Russian refineries to their lowest level since December 2009, according to estimates from the analytics firm OilX.
Lukoil, Gazprom Neft and Transneft PJSC, the state-run oil pipeline operator, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comments. The governor of the Yaroslavl region, Mikhail Yevrayev, said in a Telegram statement that an unidentified industrial facility was hit by drones and a fire was quickly extinguished. The governor of Perm region, Dmitry Makhonin, said Ukrainian drones had struck unnamed industrial sites.