Russia Has 12% of its Oil Refining Capacity Offline in May

• Reuters: calculations of offline refining capacity in Russia have been revised up by 19.2%.
• The volume of idled capacity is about 28% lower compared to April.
• In June, the idled Russian refining capacity is expected to drop by 41% compared to May levels, to 1.936 million tons of offline capacity, the estimates showed on Friday.

Russia’s primary oil refining capacity that is idled this month is 12% of its total primary refining units, per Reuters estimates on industry sources data.

Due to a change in plans in some large refining units, the calculations of offline refining capacity in Russia have been revised up by 19.2% compared to previous projections, Reuters notes.

Currently, 3.392 million metric tons, or 12% of Russia’s primary refining capacity, is offline, according to the Reuters calculations.

The volume of idled capacity is about 28% lower compared to April.

In June, the idled Russian refining capacity is expected to drop by 41% compared to May levels, to 1.936 million tons of offline capacity, the estimates showed on Friday.

Russia’s fuel shipments dipped by 14.6% in April compared to March, as refinery repairs, seasonal maintenance, and a gasoline export ban weighed on Moscow’s petroleum product exports last month.

In April, Russia exported 8.415 million metric tons of oil products by sea, down by 14.6% from March.

Russia has had higher-than-expected maintenance and repairs at its refiners in recent months after Ukraine stepped up early this year its drone attacks on the Russian refining capacity. In addition to unplanned repairs to fix damages from the drones, some refineries underwent planned maintenance, which also dragged down Russia’s fuel exports in April.

Russia said in early April it could repair all damaged units within two months.

Russia’s Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov said that all damaged refineries in the country would be restarted by the beginning of June. 

However, just as Russia had started to bring back part of the refinery capacity damaged by Ukrainian drone attacks earlier this year, a new wave of drone attacks hit a major refinery owned by Rosneft, for a second time, in early May. Rosneft’s Ryazan refinery southeast of Moscow caught fire after an overnight drone attack on May 1.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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