Russia's largest oil refinery halts processing after drone attack, sources say

MOSCOW - Omsk oil refinery, Russia’s largest, has halted operations following a Ukrainian drone attack, two industry sources said on July 7.

A July 6 strike on the refinery, deep in Siberia, was one of Ukraine’s longest-range attacks in its defence against a full-scale invasion by Russia, now well into its fifth year.

The halt in operations at the plant, which is Russia’s top producer of petrol, is likely to exacerbate fuel shortages across the country.

“Facilities at the Omsk oil refinery were damaged as a result of (the July 6) attack. No plant personnel were injured,” Anatoly Seryshev, President Vladimir Putin’s representative in Siberia, said in a statement on July 7.

“Damage assessment is currently under way, and competent services have organised restoration work,” Seryshev said, without spelling out how the refinery’s operations were affected.

Gazprom Neft, which owns the refinery, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

According to the sources, a crude distillation unit, CDU-10, which accounts for around 38 per cent of the plant’s production capability with a capacity of 24,580 metric tons a day, caught fire and was damaged in the attack.

Omsk refinery has stopped selling gasoline and diesel on the Saint Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange since July 7, according to data from the exchange.

The sources said another primary processing unit, CDU-11, was also halted. It accounts for 37 per cent of the plant’s capacity and is able to process 24,000 tons of oil a day.

While the unit was not hit, some network links essential to its operation were damaged, the sources said. They said CDU-11, which entered operation in 2023, could resume work in the near future.

Omsk refinery has two mothballed primary refining units, CDU-7 and CDU-8, with a production capacity of 10,000 tons each. In theory, the plant could restart them.

According to the source-based information, Omsk oil refinery processed 22 million tons of oil, or around 440,000 barrels per day, in 2024, producing five million tons of petrol and eight million tons of diesel. REUTERS