Ryazan Refinery of Rosneft Halts Crude Operations Following Drone Assault, Sources Report

MOSCOW, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The Ryazan oil refinery, one of Russia's largest facilities owned by Rosneft, has ceased crude oil processing due to a drone strike attributed to Ukraine on November 15, as indicated by three industry insiders.

"The facility is anticipated to remain inoperative until the end of the month, with no oil product shipments scheduled prior to December 1," stated one of the sources.

Pavel Malkov, the Governor of Ryazan, mentioned on his Telegram account early Saturday that "debris from a drone resulted in a fire at one of the industrial sites," without clarifying which facility was impacted.

Ukraine has intensified its drone offensives deep within Russian territory, targeting oil refineries, storage facilities, and pipelines. This year, Ukrainian drones have attacked at least 17 significant refineries.

Despite these attacks, Russia's oil refining output has decreased by only 3% this year, as refineries have utilized spare capacity to mitigate the impact of the strikes.

According to the sources, the fire prompted the Ryazan refinery to shut down its principal crude distillation unit, which has an annual capacity exceeding 8 million metric tons, representing 48% of the plant’s overall capacity.

Rosneft did not respond to a request for comments.

An earlier drone strike on October 24 had already halted another crude distillation unit, reducing the refinery’s capacity by 26%.

The necessary repairs for that unit are still pending, and the remaining units at the facility have also been taken offline, although it remains unclear if this is due to the attacks.

As of November 15, the Ryazan refinery has suspended its sales of petroleum products on the St Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange, according to exchange data.

Industry experts noted that the refinery processed 13.1 million tons of crude in 2024, which accounted for 4.9% of Russia’s total refining output, producing 2.2 million tons of gasoline, 3.4 million tons of diesel, and 4.3 million tons of fuel oil. (Reporting by Reuters Editing by David Goodman)