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Some of the Russian oil refineries’ problems can be solved only by involving American companies, which is not possible due to sanctions.
Reuters reports that Russian Lukoil faced such ‘inconveniences’ in January, when a turbine at their largest refinery broke down and the only company to provide vital service to the refinery turned out to be American UOP which had left Russian market back in 2022.
“They [the Lukoil engineers — ed.] rushed around to find spare parts and they couldn’t find anything. Then the whole unit just stopped,” says the article, citing an anonymous source close to Lukoil.
The Lukoil company is just one example of what is to happen to different oil enterprises in Russia, built jointly with US and European engineers or with the help of Western equipment.
And this situation did not involve Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries. Now, the Russian oil industry is even at bigger risk as Ukraine is determined to deprive Russia of its most beneficial business.
“If the stream of drones continues at this rate and Russian air defenses don’t improve, Ukraine will be able to cut Russian refining runs quicker than Russian firms will be able to repair them,” suggested Sergey Vakulenko, an expert on Russia’s energy industry and non-resident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in a comment to Reuters.
According to Reuters calculations, around 14% of Russia’s refining capacity has been already shut down by Ukraine. In March, Bloomberg stated Russia’s refining industry lost 12% of its capacity.
Read also: Ukraine has right to attack military targets in Russia — Estonian president
