World's largest gas processing plant, operated by Gazprom, suspended after Ukraine drone attack / Kazakhstan announces stop of gas flow to Russia
Gazprom production facility near Orenburg. Photo: Alexander Kataytsev / Alamy / Profimedia
The Orenburg gas processing plant, the largest facility of its kind in the world, was forced to suspend taking gas from Kazakhstan after a drone attack by Ukraine, Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry announced on Sunday, according to Reuters.
The governor of the Orenburg region, Evgheni Solntsev, said the facility was partially damaged and the drone attack caused a fire in a factory workshop. The fire was later extinguished, Kommersant reported, citing the operator.
Ukraine has confirmed it struck a gas processing facility in Orenburg and an oil refinery in the Samara region, as part of an increasing series of attacks on Russian energy infrastructure aimed at disrupting fuel supplies and cutting funding to Moscow.
The Ukrainian army announced that there were explosions followed by fires at the site of the attack.
It is the first reported attack on this plant, which is part of the Orenburg petrochemical complex.
The facility, operated by Gazprom, has an annual processing capacity of 45 billion cubic meters and handles gas condensate from both the Orenburg oil and gas field and the Karachaganak field in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan's Energy Ministry said Gazprom had notified them of the emergency, but did not yet provide details on the extent of the damage or a timeline for full resumption of operations.
No casualties were reported in the attack.
Separately, the governor of Russia's Samara region, Viaceslav Fedorishcev, said on social media that air defenses had been activated overnight against Ukrainian drones and that the local airport, as well as mobile internet services, had been temporarily suspended.
Ukraine previously tried to strike an oil refinery in the Samara region.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its anti-aircraft forces shot down 45 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 12 over the Samara region, 11 over the Saratov region and one in the Orenburg region.
