Russia is short of a third of its petrol after refinery strikes

Russia’s petrol market is short by roughly a third after drone attacks forced several major refineries to shut down. Output fell to about 80,000 tonnes a day at the end of August, just 70% of summer consumption.

The shutdowns affected refineries in Perm, Kstovo, where the NORSI refinery operates, and Yaroslavl. Together, they produce significant volumes of motor petrol. The resulting gap between production and demand reached about 35,000 tonnes a day, while Russia consumes roughly 115,000 tonnes daily during the summer.

Refinery output averaged about 90,000 tonnes a day in August, covering 80% of demand. By the end of the month, production had almost returned to the level recorded in early July, when the first wave of the fuel crisis peaked.

The shortage has pushed Russia to buy more fuel abroad. About 270,000 tonnes of petroleum products from Asian countries arrived by sea in August, while an estimated 150,000 tonnes of petrol came from Belarus. Traders put total August petrol imports at about 220,000 tonnes, or 7,000 tonnes a day.

Even with those imports and an export ban running until January 31, about 97,000 tonnes of petrol was reaching the Russian market each day, equal to roughly 85% of demand. Ukrainian forces have attacked Russian oil refineries at least 21 times since early August, and motorists have faced shortages even in Moscow and the surrounding Moscow Oblast.