Oil refinery in Leningrad Oblast unable to resume operations for 10 days after drone attack - media
The "Kirishinefteorgsintez" oil refinery in the Leningrad Oblast of the aggressor state, the russian federation, has still not resumed shipments of petroleum products following the attack by Ukrainian drones that took place on the night of May 5.
The russian publication ASTRA reported this on Friday, May 15, citing its own sources.
According to the publication, Surgutneftegaz, which owns the refinery, notified its counterparties of the suspension of petroleum product shipments due to “damage to technological facilities.” In the notice, the company cites the occurrence of “force majeure” circumstances that prevent it from fulfilling its obligations.
ASTRA obtained one such notice, addressed to the St. Petersburg International Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange. The authenticity of the document was confirmed by a company involved in shipments from the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery.
An unnamed source told ASTRA that the facility had effectively ceased operations at the end of March, when it was first struck. At that time, operations could only be partially resumed.
According to him, as a result of Ukrainian attacks on the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery, all crude oil primary processing units were put out of commission. This is the key equipment of any oil refinery. Its shutdown paralyzes the operation of the entire facility.
"They destroyed all the primary crude oil refining units <...> It took several months to restore the largest unit. We had just started shipping again—and on May 5, there was another strike," the publication quotes the source as saying.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on the night of May 5, Ukrainian drones attacked the Kirishinefteorgsintez oil refinery. The strikes caused a fire on the refinery’s premises. Later, Reuters reported, citing sources, that the refinery had suspended operations due to the attack.
As a reminder, today, May 15, Ukrainian drones attacked an oil refinery in the Ryazan Oblast—one of the largest in russia in terms of processing capacity. A massive fire broke out at the facility.
And yesterday, May 14, it was reported that a gas processing plant in Astrakhan had suspended fuel production following an attack by Ukrainian drones.