Oil refining in russia decreases by only 3% despite Ukraine's strikes. Russians using reserve capacities - Reuters

Despite Ukraine's numerous strikes, the aggressor country russia has reduced oil refining by only 3%. The russians have used reserve capacities to compensate for the damage caused by the attacks.

It was reported by Reuters yesterday, November 13, citing its own sources.

Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks deep inside russia to disrupt oil refineries, storage facilities and pipelines. Most of the attacks took place in early 2025 and then resumed in August. Ukrainian drones struck at least 17 major oil refineries. This forced moscow to reduce fuel exports.

During the second wave of strikes between August and October, attacks and scheduled maintenance put 20% of russia's refining capacity out of commission. However, this resulted in only a 6% decrease in total oil refining. Now it is approximately 5.1 million barrels per day, which is 300,000 barrels per day less than in the same period in 2024.

According to Reuters' interlocutors, some refineries were not operating at full capacity. After the strikes of Ukrainian UAVs, these capacities were used to compensate for the losses.

Broadly speaking, from January to October of this year, oil refining in russia fell to about 220 million metric tons (5.2 million barrels per day), down 3% from a year earlier.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on the night of November 11, Ukrainian UAVs attacked the Saratov Oil Refinery of Rosneft. As a result of the strikes, a large-scale fire broke out at the enterprise.

And on November 6, it became known that the Lukoil-Volgogradneftepererabotka refinery halted oil refining after the Ukrainian drones attacked it.