Ukraine said it struck Gazprom Neft’s Omsk refinery on Oct. 8, the second drone attack on the Siberian site since July and the latest strike to threaten Russian base oil production.
The refinery has 220,000 metric tons per year of API Group II and Group III base oil capacity. There has been no public confirmation that either attack damaged the base oil units.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the Oct. 8 strike at Omsk caused a fire. Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point also claimed a successful hit. Omsk regional Governor Vitaly Khotsenko said one drone reached the city’s northern industrial zone and urged residents not to create panic at filling stations. The extent of damage and the effect on operations could not be independently verified.
Omsk is located more than 2,500 kilometers from Ukraine’s border and has crude processing capacity of more than 21 million t/y. Ukraine first struck the refinery on July 6. Kyiv said it hit the ELOU-AVT-11 primary distillation unit, with design capacity of 8.4 million t/y. Reuters reported that the earlier attack temporarily halted processing.
Other Russian base oil producers have also been hit. Ukraine struck Lukoil’s Perm refinery on Aug. 21 and Sept. 25. Reuters reported that the September attack caused a fire and temporarily stopped operations. Perm has base oil capacity of approximately 460,000 t/y.
Ukraine also attacked the Yaroslavl refinery on Sept. 17, after an earlier strike on Aug. 28. The refinery operates a 100,000 t/y Group III base oil plant. Tatneft’s Taneco refinery in Nizhnekamsk was struck on Aug. 10 and has capacity to produce 90,000 t/y of Group II and 100,000 t/y of Group III base oils.
The attack came days before U.S. President Donald Trump announced an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to release additional Russian diesel into the global markets. Trump said Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tons, or about 2.25 million barrels, followed by further volumes. The amount represents about 1 hour and 53 minutes of global diesel consumption. The agreement has drawn bipartisan criticism in the U.S. Congress.