By Athena Papakosta

THE Ukraine escalates them attacks of with remote-controlled drones against energy facilities deep inside Russian territory.

Yesterday, Wednesday, the biggest one was engulfed in flames refinery her Rosneft in the area of ​​Razan.

As the Reuters news agency reports, two of the crude oil distillation units were destroyed.

At the same time, also yesterday, the Novosakhtinsk refinery at Rostovin the south of Russia, suspended its operation for several hours after a drone attack.
It was preceded on Tuesday by a strike against Russia’s fourth largest refinery, Norsi, which is owned by Lukoil and is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 430 northeast of Moscow. It caught fire, according to Reuters, destroying the main crude oil distillation unit – meaning at least half of production has been disrupted.

Finally, on Tuesday, the refinery was also targeted by Ukrainian drones Kinef of Surgutneftegas in Kirisi in Leningrad.

Given that the above energy facilities represent at least 10% of Russia’s total oil processing capacity, Kiev, according to analysts, copies in a way that shakes up Moscow’s tactics, when a year ago the Russian armed forces targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Capitalizing on the fact that Russia, isolated from international markets, will need more time to repair the damage – since finding “spare parts” due to sanctions is a complex equation – the Ukrainian armed forces are trying to hurt the country’s export activity.

Already on March 3, Russia voluntarily made additional cuts in oil supply mainly in the form of production cuts rather than exports as, as analysts pointed out, it faces limited refining capacity as well as tougher sanctions.

At the same time, in coordination with the rest of the OPEC+ countries, Moscow has announced that it will voluntarily reduce its oil production by 471,000 barrels per day at the end of the second quarter of this year.

Since the beginning of 2024, at least four of the country’s 32 major refineries have been attacked. Among them is Rosneft’s installation in Tuapse on the Black Sea, forcing it to cease operations.

As Victor Cantona, the chief crude analyst at data analysis company Kpler, points out to the Financial Times, the first wave of Ukrainian drone strikes led to a reduction in Russian oil production by 400,000 barrels per day, and from 5.6 million barrels at the beginning of 2024 it fell to 5 .2 million barrels per day in early February.

Since then, Cantona notes, production has rebounded but, combined with the recent attacks, the rate of the country’s capacity shutdown could be as high as 14% of its total refinery output.