Russia’s key refinery, which processed 5% of the country’s oil, is shut down near Nizhny Novgorod
The attacked oil refinery near Nizhny Novgorod, 800 km from Ukraine, was producing 15 million tons of oil a year
A successful drone attack over 800 kilometers away disrupted one of Russia’s largest oil refineries, LUKOIL-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez, in the city of Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region.
The attack, which took place around 05:30 local time today, March 12, destroyed the most important element of the plant – one of the oil refining units, which is key to all technological processes. According to reports in the Russian Federation, the plant has ceased operations.
The importance of this attack should be emphasized by the fact that in 2022, this enterprise processed 15 million tons of oil, which was about 5% of the total Russian refining volume.
Moreover, this plant became one of the first victims of sanctions against Russia, as on January 4, 2024, another catalytic cracker unit was shut down due to a breakdown of compression equipment.
In total, there are only two of them at this enterprise. As the Russian Federation reported in January, it cannot be repaired quickly because it requires ordering Western components, and this is also not possible. Thus, this attack may well finally “nail” this Russian refinery.
We would also like to remind you that other refineries in Russia have been attacked by drones, where the targets were oil refineries, and the damage was in the billions of dollars.
In addition, that night, drones attacked other Russian facilities, including an oil depot in Orel.
There were also reports of explosions and attempts by Russian air defense to repel drone attacks in Kursk, Voronezh, and Belgorod regions.
