Ryazan refinery unit stays idle after October 15 drone strike
Russia's Ryazan oil refinery has halted one of its primary units since an October 15 drone attack, two sources say.
Published
Map: Europe, marking Ryazan
Russia's Ryazan oil refinery has kept one of its primary processing units offline since a drone attack on October 15, according to two sources. The halt marks the first confirmation that damage from the strike, rather than just reported hits, has taken a unit out of service.
Energy Minister Alexander Novak said drones struck both the Saratov and Ryazan refineries on Wednesday, October 14, confirming that two separate Russian refineries had come under attack that day. Vladimir Putin had described the damage from that round of strikes as insignificant.
A Ukrainian official has said an overnight strike on a Russian refinery was retaliation for Russian missile and drone attacks that broke the energy truce Washington had been pushing. The Financial Times has reported that Washington is considering unfreezing Russian assets to revive talks with Ukraine, even as fresh refinery strikes complicate that effort.
A sustained shutdown at one of Russia's larger refineries, rather than reported damage that is later walked back, would cut against the Kremlin's own position that Russian diesel has begun reaching global markets without fully stabilizing them. Diesel futures have already risen on doubts that the US-Russia export arrangement adds real supply, and a prolonged outage at Ryazan narrows the physical barrels available just as Washington pushes for exports to flow before the midterms.