Russia's Ryzan oil refinery halts operations after drone strikes, sources say

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Ryazan oil refinery has suspended operations after an attack by Ukrainian drones late last week, two industry sources told Reuters on Monday.

They said oil storage at the refinery had been set ablaze. Among damaged equipment were a railway loading rack and a hydrotreater unit used to remove impurities from refined products.

"The railway loading equipment has been damaged. There have been no railways loadings, they stopped oil processing," one person said.

Another source said the loadings have been suspended since Friday, also confirming that the plant has been stopped due to inability to dispatch oil products.

Rosneft, which owns the plant, did not respond to a request for comment.

Other industry sources said that other oil refineries, including in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Yaroslavl, may step in to provide the fuel.

Ryazan oil refinery processed 13.1 million metric tons (262,000 barrels per day), or almost 5% of Russia's total refining throughput in 2024.

It produced 2.2 million tons of gasoline, 3.4 million tons of diesel, 4.3 million tons of fuel oil and 1 million of jet fuel, according to a source-based data.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)