Russia’s exports of refined oil products by sea declined by 9.1% in 2024 from a year earlier, due to low processing rates, drone attacks knocking out refineries, and export bans, Reuters reported on Friday, citing industry data.
Russia shipped a total of 113.7 million metric tons of refined petroleum products last year, while its domestic refining slumped to a multi-year low level of 267 million tons in 2024, the lowest since 2012.
The refining rates fell amid weak margins, unplanned refinery outages, and the export bans that Russia introduced for several periods in 2024.
Ukrainian drone attacks have damaged several major refineries in Russia, knocking out some of these for weeks after the drone strikes.
Energy installations have been key targets in the conflict by both sides.
Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and other energy infrastructure have become a fixture, with drones the weapon of choice for conducting the strikes.
Ukraine continues to target refineries in Russia and some of these attacks have affected further product supply from Russian refineries.
In recent months, Russia has seen higher-than-expected maintenance and repairs at its refineries after Ukraine stepped up its drone attacks early this year on the Russian refining capacity. In addition to unplanned repairs to fix damages from the drones, some refineries have been undergoing planned maintenance.
As a result of a damaged refinery, Russia’s oil products exports from the Russian Black Sea port of Tuapse plunged by one third, to 9.1 million tons, last year, due to outages after drone attacks, market sources told Reuters this week.
The Tuapse oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, the biggest Russian crude processing facility on the Black Sea, was damaged in two separate Ukrainian drone attacks last year alone.
Rosneft-owned Tuapse refinery, which has a capacity to process 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, has been a target of several drone attacks from Ukraine since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
