Russia’s second-largest oil refinery completely halts crude processing after drone attack
Russia’s second-largest oil refinery, Kirishinefteorgsintez, has completely halted oil processing following a drone attack on August 30. The plant accounts for about 7% of Russia’s total oil refining capacity and is the largest fuel supplier to St. Petersburg and the country’s northwestern regions.
Censor.NET reports this, citing Russian outlet The Moscow Times, which referred to reporting by Reuters and the Financial Times.
Units accounting for nearly half of the refinery’s capacity damaged
According to two Reuters industry sources, the attack damaged two primary oil processing units at the refinery.
The AVT-6 unit can process 22,860 tonnes of oil per day and accounts for about 40% of the plant’s total capacity. The second unit, AT-1, has a capacity of 4,860 tonnes per day, or another 8%.
The refinery has two other units, AT-6 and AVT-2, which together account for the remaining 52% of its capacity. However, they were already offline at the time of the attack.
Kirishinefteorgsintez is owned by Surgutneftegas and has a design capacity of 20 million tonnes of oil per year. By this measure, it is second only to the Omsk oil refinery in Russia, which has a capacity of 22 million tonnes.
The plant produces about 2 million tonnes of gasoline and 7 million tonnes of diesel fuel annually.
Refinery has already halted twice following drone attacks
This is not the first prolonged shutdown at the plant in 2026. The refinery also went offline for repairs after drone attacks on March 26 and May 5.
According to Reuters and the Financial Times, it has not been possible to fully restore operations after the previous strikes. In August, the refinery was operating at approximately half of its capacity.
Overall, seven Russian oil refineries fully or partially halted fuel production due to drone attacks in August. They include the Yaroslavl refinery, which supplies fuel to Moscow, as well as the Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Novoshakhtinsk, Saratov and Volgograd refineries.
Russian gasoline production falls below domestic consumption
Amid the shutdown of major oil refining facilities, gasoline production in Russia fell to approximately 80,000 tonnes per day in late August.
Reuters estimates domestic consumption at about 115,000 tonnes per day. Thus, current production is approximately 30% below consumption levels.
