Drones attack small refinery in Russia's Kaluga region

According to the local administration and Russian news agency, a small refinery was set on fire and a fuel depot was damaged due to a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.

Russia's RIA Novosti and other local media reported that a fire broke out when a drone crashed over the site at the “mini refinery” of Plant 1, which has a capacity of 24,000 barrels per day, and ignited 3 diesel tanks and 1 fuel oil container.

The local governor of this region, Vladislav Shapsha, acknowledged in a telegram on 5/10 that a fire broke out at an “enterprise” in the Dzerzhinsky region due to a drone attack, and that the fire has now been extinguished. He did not disclose the target plants.

As a small mini-refinery, the first plant processes small amounts of crude oil and gas condensate and supplies only feedstocks containing fuel oil and distillates. According to RIA Novosti, the attack on the storage tank destroyed about 60 cubic meters of diesel storage and 6 cubic meters of fuel oil.

The factory was previously the target of a drone attack on 3/15, and 4 drones were shot down over the site and set on fire to pipes.

As an update on the series of attacks that occurred this week, this incident highlighted a continuing security threat to Russia's energy infrastructure as the scope of targeted oil production assets expands.

On 5/9, Gazprom's 200,000 barrel-per-day Salavat refinery, which is about 1,300 kilometers away from the Ukrainian border, was attacked by drones, and the proven attack range was further expanded by 200 meters into Russian territory.

As a result, the nearby Ufa refinery and Taif refinery together occupy a production capacity of 610,000 barrels per day, and there is a possibility that they are at risk of attack, and 80% or more of Russia's refining capacity is within firing range. In Ufa, there is a possibility that upstream assets, including heavy crude oil production at the Arlanskoye oil field and the Yugomashevskoye oil field, will also be targeted, and the drone war in Ukraine will further intensify.

Since April 27, the frequency and intensity of strikes in Ukraine has gradually increased, but analysts expect outages will be mitigated by Russia's quick response time and use of reserve capacity.

Despite Salavat's fluid catalytic cracking device being hit directly, local governor Rady Khabilov predicted that the impact of the strike would remain minimal, repairs would be completed “within 2 to 3 days,” and there would be no impact on production.