Moscow — Russia’s Ryazan oil refinery has suspended operations after an attack by Ukrainian drones on Monday, three industry sources told Reuters.
The main crude distillation unit at the refinery, CDU-6, caught fire in the attack and the plant has fully suspended oil processing, the sources said.
Rosneft, which owns the plant, did not respond to a request for comment. Ukraine’s military said on Monday some of its drones had hit the Ryazan oil refinery overnight, with at least five explosions occurring in its vicinity.
The governor of the Ryazan region, Pavel Malkov, said on the Telegram messaging app that falling debris from destroyed Ukrainian drones had sparked a fire at an industrial enterprise in the region. Malkov did not elaborate.
The plant may partially resume operations within several days, according to one of the sources who spoke to Reuters.
The CDU-6 unit has a capacity of some 170,000 bpd, or some 48% of Ryazan’s refining capacity. The refinery may turn on CDU-4 and CDU-3 prime distillation units, while CDU-6 is under repair, the sources said.
CDU-4 and CDU-3 have a total refining capacity of around 145,000 bpd, or some 41% of the plant’s installed refining capacity, according to the sources and Reuters’ calculations.
Ryazan refinery partially resumed oil processing and loading of motor fuels to railway tanks on February 11 after staying idle for 18 days after another attack by Ukrainian drones on January 24.
Ryazan refinery processed 13.1 million metric tons (262,000 barrels per day), or almost 5% of Russia’s total refining throughput in 2024.
It produced 2.3 million tons of gasoline, 3.4 million tons of diesel, 4.2 million tons of fuel oil and 1 million of jet fuel, according to source-based data.
Reporting by Reuters Editing by David Goodman and Gareth Jones – Reuters
