In Russia, a sharp drop in gasoline production was recorded after a series of strikes by Ukrainian drones on large Russian oil refineries, including “Rosneft” and “Lukoil”.
This was reported by The Moscow Times with reference to the data of the Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat).
For the week ending on March 24, gasoline output in the country fell by 7.4% and amounted to 754.6 thousand tons.
In the previous week, Russia produced 815.3 thousand tons of gasoline, and from March 4 to 10 — 838.9 thousand tons. Thus, in three weeks, the Russian economy lost 10.1% of gasoline production. The output of diesel fuel during the same period fell by 3.9% to 1.648 million tons.
Last week, it was reported that after the attacks of Ukrainian drones on Russian refineries, the average daily rate of oil processing in the Russian Federation fell to the lowest weekly level in the last ten months.
Thus, from March 14 to 20, Russian refineries processed 5.03 million barrels of oil per day. According to Bloomberg calculations, this is more than 400 000 barrels per day less than the average for the first 13 days of March.
This year, 13 large Russian oil refineries and two small ones came under attack. As a result, the Russian Federation lost 480 000 to 900 000 barrels of processing capacity per day. But the actual reduction in the total volume of oil processing at Russian refineries may be smaller, as other intact refineries have increased their productivity.
On March 17, another oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of the Russian Federation caught fire due to a drone attack. This is already some Russian oil facility that has been affected by the bezpolniki. In particular, on March 13 in Ryazan, Russia, an oil refinery caught fire after a drone attack. Before that, drones attacked a refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region and an oil depot in Oryol. At the same time, the oil refinery of the “Lukoil” company in the Nizhny Novgorod region lost part of its capacity due to the attack. Against the background of the attacks, stock exchange prices for gasoline AI-92 and AI-95, as well as for summer diesel fuel, have increased by 8-23% since the beginning of the year.
Recently, the Financial Times wrote that the US even urged Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, as this could raise global oil prices and provoke attacks on Ukrainian energy in response.
However, Russia still remains one of the worldʼs largest energy exporters, even despite Western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. At the end of last year, it was reported that Russiaʼs monthly income from oil exports was greater than before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.