Sole Black Sea Coast Oil Refinery In Russia Halts Operations Following Ukrainian Strike

Repairs at the Tuapse plant may take until spring.

Rosneft's Tuapse refinery, the only one on the Black Sea coast of Russia and one of the top 10 largest in the country, has stopped oil refining and production of petroleum products.

As Reuters reports, citing industry sources, the plant, which annually processes up to 9 million tons of raw materials, was paralyzed after a fire that broke out on January 25 due to a strike by Ukrainian drones.

As a result of the UAV raid, due to which the authorities closed the Sochi airport and sounded the air raid signals, the vacuum installation burned down.

According to Reuters sources, the plant will not be able to quickly restore production: repairs could approximately last until the end of February - beginning of March.

Built in 1929, the Tuapse Oil Refinery is the oldest operating in Russia. During January–November 2023, the Tuapse Refinery processed 8.85 million tons of oil, produced 1.6 million tons of oil, 3.1 million tons of high-sulfur diesel fuel, 1.15 million tons of vacuum gasoil and 2.95 million tons of heating oil.

Petroleum products from the Tuapse Refinery are shipped for export through the Rosneft terminal in Tuapse. In January, the plant shipped 680,000 tons of product to customers in Malaysia, China, Singapore and Taiwan, according to Reuters sources and tanker shipping statistics.

The attack on the Tuapse oil refinery was the fourth case in a week of drone attacks on Russia's oil and gas infrastructure. On January 18, an oil terminal in the Leningrad region came under attack. On January 19, a drone attacked an oil depot owned by Rosneft in the city of Klintsy, Bryansk region.

And on January 21, the arrival of a drone led to a fire at the NOVATEK terminal in the seaport of Ust-Luga in the Leningrad region. The fire was completely extinguished in the afternoon of January 22, and the terminal’s operation was resumed only in the morning of January 24.

The Ukrainian armed forces have switched to new tactics of destroying Russian infrastructure. Instead of eliminating purely military targets in the occupied territories, the Ukrainian army decided to hit targets serving both the civilian population and the military-industrial complex on Russian territory, Bild wrote.

The new targets include facilities that play a key role in supplying and supporting Russian military forces. By destroying such objects it is intended to put pressure on the enemy and change the course of military operations in favor of Ukraine.