Drone attacks TANECO oil refinery in Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, 1100 km from Ukrainian border – Russian media

A facility of the TANECO oil refinery complex in Nizhnekamsk, the Russian Republic of Tatarstan, was hit by a drone, according to preliminary information reported by the Russian Baza telegram channel on Apr. 2.

This follows earlier Russian media reports that the two drones attacked Tatarstan's special economic zone near Yelabuga, which houses chemical and mechanical factories, as well as Tatneft's oil refining complex and the Shahed kamikaze drone assembly plant.

The facilities are located more than 1,100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

Six people were injured in the attack, which "did not cause serious damage," the local officials claimed.

The attack on the drone assembly plant was organized by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), according to NV sources within the agency.

In just two months, Ukraine has used long-range drones to take out as much as 12% of Russia’s total oil refining capacity, according to a recent Bloomberg report. The resulting shortage of petroleum products forced Moscow to ban their export.

Read also:

• Ukraine’s strategic strikes aim to undermine Russia's economy and cut petrodollar flow to war effort

• Impact of Ukrainian UAV strikes on Russian assets - ISW analysis

• U.S. does not support Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries, but is there a request to stop?

Ukrainian drone strikes open up new opportunities for economic warfare against Russia, damaging Russian infrastructure and industry on a much larger scale.

The following Russian facilities have been partially or completely disabled:

• Tuapse Oil Refinery

• Nizhny Novgorod Oil Refinery

• Ryazan Oil Refinery

• Novokuibyshevsk Oil Refinery

• Syzran Oil Refinery

• Slavyansk Oil Refinery

• Ilsky Oil Refinery

• Volgograd Oil Refinery

• Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery

• Kuibyshev Oil Refinery

• Ust-Luga LNG plant

• Novocherkassk GRES.

The refineries’ most vulnerable modules—rectification columns—were chosen as targets. Ukrainian experts estimate direct losses from the destruction of this valuable equipment to be about $1.5 billion.

Indirect losses, including a drop in refining capacity of the Russian oil industry, are estimated at more than 70 million tons per year, which is more than 25% of all Russian capacity.

Torbjörn Törnqvist, CEO of the multinational energy trading company Guvnor, believes that the Ukrainian strikes have deprived Russia of at least 600,000 barrels of daily refining capacity, while the American JPMorgan Chase and Co. estimates this figure even higher, at 900,000 barrels of daily refining capacity.

This led to:

• A 50% increase in gasoline prices in Russia

• A ban on gasoline exports from Russia (a $2 billion loss for the state budged $4 billion in lost revenue from oil companies)

• Reduction of production by 600,000 barrels per day (annual losses can reach $12 billion).

On March 25, the head of Ukraine’s SBU security service, Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk, said in an interview with ICTV that Ukraine would continue to target Russian oil facilities.

On March 27, the pro-Ukrainian resistance movement Atesh reported that in Russian regions where the oil industry had been targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes, National Guard (Rosgvardia) units were being inspected to determine why they had failed to counter the threat.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine