Oil Refining In Central Russia Has Virtually Stopped
- 20.05.2026, 18:14
Because of UAV attacks.
All major refineries in central Russia have been forced to completely halt or significantly reduce crude processing and petroleum product production as a result of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks over the past two weeks, Reuters has calculated based on official data and sources.
The number of UAV attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure has increased in 2026 and the number of refineries targeted has doubled since the beginning of the year, and in the second half of May Central Russia's refineries, which supply fuel to the domestic market and provide fuel to the country's oil refineries, have been operating at about a quarter of their nominal capacity since last week.
The Yaroslavnefteorgsintez (YANOS) refinery, which supplies fuel to the domestic market, has been operating at about a quarter of its nominal capacity since last week. The Yaroslavnefteorgsintez (YANOS) refinery, according to fuel market sources, has been operating at about a quarter of its rated capacity since last week.
One of the country's largest refineries, Kirishinefteorgsintez (Kinef, with a capacity of 20 million tons of oil per year), has been completely shut down since May 5, while another major refinery, Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez (NORSI, with a capacity of 17 million tons per year), was attacked on May 20. Whether NORSI has managed to remain partially operational has not yet been established.
The total capacity of the fully or partially halted refineries is over 83 million tons per year (238,000 tons per day) - about a quarter of Russia's. Together they used to produce more than 30 percent of Russia's gasoline and about 25 percent of diesel fuel, according to Reuters calculations.
The Ryazan refinery, for example, supplies a significant part of its fuel output to the market in Moscow and the Moscow region. Sales of motor gasoline and diesel fuel of Ryazan Refinery on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) have been stopped since last Friday, according to the exchange.
YANOS has also almost completely stopped selling motor gasoline on SPIMEX since May 8, while sales of diesel fuel have decreased 2.5 times.
A number of other Russian refineries, which could compensate for the falling output of petroleum products at damaged refineries in the central part of the country, have themselves been attacked and are also shut down or are not operating at full capacity, Reuters notes.
In particular, the Permnefteorgsintez refinery (13 million tons per year) and the Astrakhan gas condensate refinery (3 million tons of gas condensate) are currently idle. The Novokuibyshevsk refinery (8 million tons per year) is operating at about a quarter of capacity.