Ukraine Says It Hit Oil Refinery in Russia’s Urals Region

(Bloomberg) — Ukrainian forces attacked an oil refinery in Russia’s Urals region on Thursday, as Kyiv intensifies strikes on energy infrastructure again.

Earlier on Thursday, Bashkortostan governor Radiy Khabirov said that falling drone debris caused a fire in the industrial area of Salavat. He did not specify what facilities were damaged. Russia’s gas giant Gazprom PJSC, which owns the refinery, did not immediately respond to a Bloomberg request for comment.

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Ukraine has been carrying out nearly daily strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure, from oil refineries to export facilities, in a bid to reduce the Kremlin’s export revenues and supply the domestic fuel market. Attacks on refineries triggered a nationwide gasoline shortage and forced the government in Moscow to introduce temporary bans on exports of most gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

While domestic supplies improved in the second half of July amid a short lull in the refinery attacks, the resumption of strikes this month puts the Russian oil-processing industry under pressure again.

Separately on Thursday, the governor of the Orenburg region, also in the Urals area some 1,500 kilometers east of Moscow, said the local Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery had halted operations due to damage from Ukrainian drones.

Repairs at Orsknefteorgsintez may take as much as six months as the damaged equipment cannot be replaced quickly due to sanctions, governor Yevgeny Solntsev said in a statement on the Max social network.

“The situation is difficult,” Solntsev said. “The plant has been completely shut down. We are preparing for the worst-case scenario” for regional fuel supplies, he said.

The facility, which has a design capacity of around 120,000 barrels a day, was last hit as recently as Monday. Earlier on Thursday, Solntsev said that the city of Orsk, home to the refinery, was attacked by drones again.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian drones and missiles also damaged grain terminals in the key Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, forcing Russia to temporarily halt exports of the commodity from the facilities.

Ukraine’s Security Service, known as the SBU, also said the nation’s military hit oil infrastructure that links up to Transneft PJSC’s Sheskharis export terminal in Novorossiysk. Bloomberg could not independently verify the information.