Reuters: Drone attack shuts down fuel production at Gazprom plant in Astrakhan
Photo: Gazprom (Getty Images)
A Gazprom gas processing plant in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region has suspended motor fuel production after a fire broke out on May 13 following a drone attack, Reuters reports.
According to the source, operations of critical equipment were suspended, including a combined unit for processing stable condensate with an annual capacity of about 3 million tons that produces gasoline and diesel fuel.
Fire and aftermath of the attack
Astrakhan region Governor Igor Babushkin confirmed on his Telegram channel that drone debris caused a fire at the gas processing plant.
Sources told Reuters that restoring production could take from several weeks to several months. Gazprom did not respond to a request for comment.
Possible scale of the damage
According to one source, the facility had effectively been out of operation since September of last year and had only recently resumed condensate processing and fuel production before the latest incident.
A second source reported damage to equipment related to hydrogen sulfide processing and sulfur recovery operations.
Reuters also noted that in 2024, the Astrakhan gas processing plant processed about 1.8 million tons of gas condensate, producing hundreds of thousands of tons of gasoline, diesel fuel, and fuel oil.
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