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7% of Russia’s refining capacity idled due to Ukrainian drone strikes

Ukraine’s intensification of drone attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure in the last couple of months yielded results as approximately 7% of Russia’s refining capacity was idled in the first quarter of 2024, Reuters reported on Monday.

“Market participants said refinery outages will push Russia to increase oil exports through its western ports in March by almost 200,000 bpd to around 2.15 million bpd,” the agency reported.

Drone strikes

Ukraine has been striking Russian oil refineries in heavy drone attacks since the beginning of 2024. These attacks targeted, among others, Russia's Ryazan oil refinery, the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, Russia's fourth largest refinery Norsi, Surgutneftegaz's Kirishinefteorgsintez (KINEF) refinery in Kirishi, the Syzran oil refinery, the Slavyansk refinery in Krasnodar region, as well as several smaller refineries.

“The strikes on Russian refineries added USD 2 – USD 3 per barrel of risk premium to crude last week, which remains in place as we start this week with more attacks over the weekend,” Vandana Hari, founder of oil market analysis provider Vanda Insights told Reuters.

For the first time since November, Brent crude oil temporarily surpassed USD 86 per barrel on Monday, before falling back below USD 86.
Source: Reuters, euromaidanpress.com, x
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