Ukraine's strikes send Russian oil refining to its lowest level in 21 years
Photo: Strike on an oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod (ASTRA)
Russian oil refining has fallen to its lowest level in 21 years following successful Ukrainian attacks on the country's fuel infrastructure, Bloomberg reports.
Since the beginning of the month, Russian refineries have processed an average of just 3.91 million barrels of crude oil per day, the lowest level since March 2005.
Compared with the same period last year, Russia's oil refining volumes have fallen by more than 1.4 million barrels per day.
Facing a severe fuel shortage, Russian authorities have been forced to ban most diesel exports through the end of July. The Kremlin had previously imposed restrictions on gasoline and jet fuel exports as well.
Russia is one of the world's leading diesel exporters, meaning the reduction in its supplies has quickly pushed global prices to multi-year highs. The international market is also being strained by disruptions to petroleum product shipments from the Middle East.
Scale of attacks on Russian refineries
The fuel crisis in Russia has been driven by a series of successful Ukrainian operations. Bloomberg estimates that around 50 attacks have targeted Russian fuel facilities over the past 100 days. At least 24 of Russia's 34 major oil refineries have come under attack.
Because Russia has classified official statistics on its fuel industry, analysts are assessing the real extent of the damage through satellite monitoring of oil fields and storage facilities, as well as real-time logistics tracking.
As previously reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently acknowledged that Ukrainian strikes had caused "certain problems with petroleum products" in Russia. At the same time, he claimed the situation was gradually being brought under control.
According to the Atesh resistance movement, Russia's military command in southern Ukraine has limited fuel supplies for mobile fire groups and air defense units due to shortages.
In addition, gasoline production in Russia is currently meeting only about 65% of seasonal demand. The shortfall is largely the result of Ukrainian drone strikes that have disabled several of the country's largest oil refineries.
