Ukraine Drones Continue Attacks on Russian Refineries

Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries are continuing after nearly a week of heavy fire which has damaged several Russian oil infrastructure targets. These facilities supply domestic and international markets. Russian energy ministry officials said on Tuesday that plans are underway to protect its oil and gas facilities with missile systems.

JPMorgan believes Ukraine drone strikes will likely reduce Russian refinery runs by up to 300K bpd, on top of regularly scheduled maintenance, which will likely result in higher Russian crude exports.

Al Jazeera reported on Saturday that two people had been killed, and three wounded in the attacks, which had caused a fire at a Russian oil refinery south of Moscow. The Syzran refinery in the Samara region has the capacity to process 8.5 million tonnes of crude oil a year, or 170,000 barrels per day. Argus reports that the plant could be offline until the end of March and Reuters sources said unplanned refinery downtime will push Russian March crude exports 200K bpd above plan.

A Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Sunday that long-range Ukrainian attack drones had hit 12 Russian oil refineries so far.