A major oil hub in Russia’s Volga region appears to have caught fire after an attack, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing satellite images from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System.
An image taken on Monday showed a relatively fresh heat anomaly, which could mean fires at the Samara crude oil pumping station, according to the imagery Bloomberg has analyzed.
The potential attack, reports of which emerged in Ukrainian media today, could be another hit at an oil asset in Russia after Ukraine resumed late last week attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure.
The Novokuibyshevsk refinery, one of the leading oil refineries in the Volga region and part of the Samara Group of companies of Russia’s top oil company Rosneft, was targeted in a drone attack on Friday, in what was the first Ukrainian strike on a Russian refinery since October 15.
During the weekend, Ukrainian drone attacks hit a Rosneft refinery in the Bashkortostan region, and Lukoil’s Kstovo oil refinery in Nizhny Novgorod.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pressured Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian refineries ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Ukraine refrained from attacks for two weeks, but resumed these at the end of last week.
Trump and his Administration have accused Ukraine of contributing to the diesel crisis, which sent U.S. retail diesel prices to record highs in September.
Last month, President Trump claimed he had helped broker an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine.
Trump has pressured Kyiv to stop attacking Russian refineries as global diesel supplies tighten and U.S. diesel prices remain above $6 per gallon.
As of November 2, the U.S. national average retail diesel price is $6.29 per gallon, up from $3.68/gallon at this time last year, when Ukraine sporadically attacked Russian refineries, too, but there was no war in the Middle East to restrict any crude oil and fuel flows from the region.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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