© Reuters.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at a Russian oil refinery that burned for hours on Saturday before it was brought under control – the latest of several damaging strikes this week on Russia’s processing plants.
Interfax news agency quoted the emergencies ministry as saying that “open burning” at the Syzran refinery had been halted, but measures were still under way to extinguish it completely.
It was not clear how the fire would affect production at the plant, which has the capacity to process 8.5 million metric tons of crude oil a year, or 170,000 barrels per day.
An attack on another refinery, Novokuibyshevsk, on Saturday was thwarted, the local governor said. Both plants are owned by Rosneft and located in the Samara region southeast of Moscow, some 800 km (500 miles) from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled territory.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.
Ukraine has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to strike deep inside Russia, focusing particularly on the country’s energy infrastructure. In the past few days, such attacks have also caused fires at Lukoil’s NORSI refinery in Nizhny Novgorod, east of Moscow, and Rosneft’s plant in Ryazan, southeast of the capital.
NORSI’s main crude distillation unit was damaged, which meant at least half of the refinery’s production was stopped, industry sources told Reuters. The Ryazan plant halted units that account for about 70% of output there, sources said.
Disruption to refinery operations has the potential to hit production and force up prices. Even before the latest attacks, Russia had ordered a six-month ban on gasoline exports from March 1 to keep prices stable, amid rising demand from motorists and farmers, and to allow for maintenance.
In other incidents this week, the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in the southern region of Rostov suspended operations briefly on Wednesday after downed drones fell on it, but resumed later in the day. Another drone was destroyed on the outskirts of the Kirishi refinery near St Petersburg on Tuesday.
Russia is voting through Sunday in a three-day presidential election that is virtually certain to give Vladimir Putin six more years in the Kremlin.
