MOSCOW, (Reuters) – Rosneft’s ROSN.MM Tuapse oil refinery in southern Russia has halted oil processing and output following a fire on Thursday, two industry sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil producer, has not commented.
A Ukrainian source said on Thursday that Ukrainian drones attacked the oil refinery on the shores of the Black Sea in the latest such strike on Russian energy infrastructure.
The strike would be at least the fourth on a major Russian energy infrastructure target over the past week, including an attack on a Baltic Sea fuel export terminal and processing complex at the port of Ust-Luga, which ships oil products.
The fire engulfed the export-oriented refinery in the town of Tuapse on Thursday night and it was subsequently extinguished.
Sergei Boiko, the head of Tuapse district, has said that the blaze hit the vacuum unit.
The Tuapse plant’s annual capacity is 12 million metric tons (240,000 barrels per day). It produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel, and supplies fuel mainly to Turkey, China, Malaysia and Singapore.
In 2023, the plant processed 9.378 million tons of crude oil, producing 3.306 million tons of gasoil and 3.123 million tons of fuel oil.