One of Russia’s largest oil refineries, the 400,000 barrels-per-day Kirishi refinery southeast of St. Petersburg, was on fire early on Tuesday following drone attacks overnight, Bloomberg reports, citing satellite images from NASA.
According to satellite images taken on Tuesday by NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, the Kirishi refinery owned by oil producer Surgutneftegas and nearby areas were detected to emit heating anomalies which signal fires.
Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region where the refinery is located, posted on Telegram early on Tuesday that the fire at the Kirishi industrial zone has been localized, while the Kirishi refinery was the main target of the drone attacks overnight. The post did not confirm a hit on the refinery, only stating that it was targeted.
The Kirishi refinery has not been operational since the end of March, due to a previous strike, a source with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Tuesday.
In recent months, Ukraine intensified drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, aiming to cripple fuel production and oil exports as international crude prices soar and give the Kremlin handsome revenues to continue its war in Ukraine.
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For example, Russia’s Black Sea port of Tuapse was targeted and hit by a four separate Ukrainian drone strikes in just one week as Ukraine looks to limit Russia’s oil exports and revenues amid soaring crude prices.
Since international crude oil prices surged following the war in the Middle East, Russia has boosted its oil revenues as not only prices have jumped, but Russian oil was made desirable in India again, thanks to a U.S. waiver for sales on Russia’s crude already loaded on tankers.
Tuapse and Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, as well as Ust-Luga and Primorsk on the Baltic Sea, have been targeted by Ukrainian drones multiple times over the past weeks as Ukraine looks to limit Russia’s ability to benefit from the surge in oil prices.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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