Rosneft has stopped oil processing at its Ryazan refinery after a drone attack on July 29, Reuters reported, citing two industry sources. The plant, one of Russia's largest with an annual capacity of about 17 million tons, caught fire during the incident.
Ryazan Region Governor Pavel Malkov said on Telegram that 45 drones were shot down over the region overnight, and falling debris caused a fire on industrial sites, without specifying which facilities were affected.
According to Reuters' sources, restoring the refinery will take an estimated two to three weeks. Rosneft did not respond to the agency's request for comment.
Despite the halt in processing, the refinery continued selling petroleum products on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange on July 30, offering volumes of gasoline, diesel fuel, and fuel oil, Reuters noted.
The Ryazan refinery produces about 2.2 million tons of gasoline, 3.4 million tons of diesel, and 4.3 million tons of fuel oil annually. It was previously hit by a drone attack on May 15, after which processing was suspended for roughly two months, until mid-July.
Since the beginning of July, at least eight Russian refineries have fully or partially halted production due to drone strikes, according to Reuters. In addition to Ryazan and Perm, the Tyumen refinery fully shut down on July 28, Gazpromneftekhim Salavat on July 14, Rosneft's Syzran and Saratov refineries on July 12 and 8, and Gazprom Neft's Omsk refinery — the country's largest — halted output for several days on July 6 (it had fully resumed by month's end). Lukoil's Nizhny Novgorod refinery, which halted processing on July 2, is currently operating at about 50% capacity.