Ukraine drone attack halts operations at Russia's largest oil refinery in Omsk

Ukraine's drone attack has forced Russia's largest oil refinery, located in Omsk, to halt operations. The strike reportedly damaged the primary oil processing unit, CDU-10, which handles approximately 38% of the refinery's total production capacity, processing over 24,500 tons daily.

Sources cited by RBC-Ukraine, referencing Reuters, indicated that another critical unit, CDU-11, was also forced to stop. While CDU-11 did not sustain a direct hit, shrapnel or the blast wave damaged essential engineering connections required for its operation. This unit accounts for about 37% of the refinery's capacity.

Although the Omsk refinery theoretically could attempt to compensate for the lost capacity by reactivating two older units, CDU-7 and CDU-8, each capable of processing 10,000 tons of oil per day, the overall impact of the attack is significant. The complete shutdown of Russia's largest gasoline producer could exacerbate an existing fuel crisis within the country's domestic market.

This incident follows a pattern of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Russian energy infrastructure. The Omsk refinery has already stopped all sales of gasoline and diesel on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange. Last year, the facility processed 22 million tons of oil, producing 5 million tons of gasoline and 8 million tons of diesel fuel.