The suspension of export transshipment of petroleum products in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga after the attack by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on March 25 may force large refineries in the European part of Russia to processing limitations due to difficulties in exporting products, according to Reuters.
As a result of the drone strike on the terminal in Ust-Luga, a railway overpass used for unloading petroleum products from tankers was damaged. On Wednesday, the terminal stopped accepting deliveries, including from the Kinef and JANOS refineries and plants in Moscow and Ryazan. Earlier, on March 22, a drone attack affected the neighboring port of Primorsko.
Moreover, it could be even worse.
— Primorsk has not accepted diesel oil since Monday, and Ust-Luga has stopped accepting gasoline and fuel oil since Wednesday. In a few days, processing will have to be reduced to a minimum, and then it will have to be stopped completely, says a source from one of the refineries in the European part of the Russian Federation.
The terminal in Ust-Luga is one of main hubs in Russia. It is used to transship fuel for export and has a capacity of approximately 30 million tons per year. The actual supply of fuel to the terminal in 2025 amounted to approximately 18 million tons, of which over 14 million tons came from the above-mentioned refineries.
“Huge problem”
According to traders, damage to the export infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, making it difficult to export fuel oil, is the biggest problem for Russian refineries. — We can still somehow separate gasoline and diesel oil on the internal market, but heating oil is a huge problem — notes one of the industry sources.
The interlocutors say that refineries supplying fuel for export via Ust-Luga have urgently started searching for alternative directions export of petroleum products and also started to optimize the processing scheme or reduce the burden.
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The total crude oil processing at the Kinef and JANOS refineries and at the plants in Moscow and Ryazan is approximately 55 million tons, according to traders' data.
Mazut, the production of which in the above-mentioned refineries accounts for 18 percent. up to 35 percent volume of processed oil is not in demand in Russia. Therefore, plants must export it. Automotive gasoline is almost entirely consumed by the domestic market, and diesel oil – about two-thirds.
Emergency operation
For refineries, the inability to export fuel oil means risk of work stoppage. And if production is reduced by limiting processing, the production of automotive gasoline will decrease proportionally, which is undesirable during the period of seasonal increase in demand for this product, as the sources note.
They informed that refineries are currently considering a package of anti-crisis measures to deal with the excess of fuel oil. — In this situation, heating oil is a blocking product. We wonder how minimize the production of petroleum products. We will direct them to the production of asphalt, bunker fuel and thermal power plants. We are looking at other ports to which these products can be redirected quickly. We will have to reduce processing and use secondary capacities as much as possible, says a source at the refinery.
The dates for resuming the receipt of petroleum products at the terminal in Ust-Luga are not known yet.
At the same time, one of the suppliers of fuel oil to the port – the Kinef refinery – went bankrupt victim of a drone attack March 26 and may limit processing for some time, which will partially alleviate the capacity deficit in the reloading of fuel oil.
However, according to the source, quickly redirecting the amount of fuel oil to other ports will not be easy anyway. There are no terminals in the northwest with a capacity comparable to Ust-Luga, and deliveries to distant ports will extend tanker turnaround times – additional wagon fleet and rail capacity will be needed.
The terminal in Ust-Luga has four double-sided railway overpasses. Three of them are intended for unloading fuel oil and oil gas. The overpasses are capable of ensuring the simultaneous unloading of 526 railway tank cars. The terminal's tank park is designed to store 960,000. cubic meters petroleum products. For reloading fuel onto tankers with a deadweight capacity of up to 300,000 tonnes. t three quays were built.
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