Drones strike oil refinery in Russia's Bashkortostan
Photo: Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations (t.me mchs_official)
On the morning of September 21, drones attacked Ufa in Russia's Bashkortostan. The attack may have targeted Bashneft's oil refining infrastructure, according to Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation.
The first reports of an attack on Ufa emerged on the morning of September 21. According to preliminary information, drones attacked one of the Bashneft Group's oil refineries. There were no official details regarding the consequences of the strike.
Other monitoring channels reported that a drone threat alert was declared in Bashkortostan during the attack. In addition, Russian authorities temporarily restricted operations at Ufa Airport. The airport suspended the arrival and departure of aircraft.
Large oil refining complex
Open sources indicate that Ufa is considered one of Russia's largest oil refining centers. The city is home to the enterprises Bashneft-UNPZ, Bashneft-Novoil, and Bashneft-Ufaneftekhim. All of them are part of the Bashneft group and form a large oil refining complex.
The combined capacity of the three enterprises exceeds 23 million metric tons of crude oil per year. The plants produce gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, lubricants, and other products.
The oil refineries are located approximately 1,600 km from Ukraine's state border.
On September 20, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Moscow oil refinery, taking approximately 4% of Russia’s oil refining capacity offline. The facility is capable of refining up to 12.15 million metric tons of crude oil per year.
Thus, taking into account previous strikes since early September, the total volume of Russian oil refining capacity that has been paralyzed has reached about 10%.
