Ukraine's forces struck the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in Yaroslavl, Russia, early on Friday, with drones causing a fire at the facility, the Ukrainian General Staff said, as Ukraine continues to pound Russia's refining infrastructure in a bid to worsen the Russian domestic fuel crisis.

The Slavneft-YANOS refinery is one of Russia's largest oil-refining enterprises and part of PJSC Slavneft, a joint venture majority-owned by Russia's Rosneft and Gazprom Neft. The facility has the capacity to process about 15 million tons of oil per year, or around 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). The refinery produces gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, fuel oil, bitumen, lubricants, and other petroleum products. Yaroslavl, located north of Moscow, is one of the more distant refining hubs Ukraine has struck in its campaign against Russian energy infrastructure.

Ukraine, which has targeted the Slavneft-YANOS refinery several times in recent years, says that its fuels are supplying the Russian army.

"Work against key enemy facilities continues," Ukraine's army said on Friday.

The drone attack is one of several that Ukraine has carried out in just one week as its forces continue to target Russian energy infrastructure.

Early this week, Ukrainian forces hit the 180,000-barrels-per-day Afipsky refinery in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar. The Afipsky refinery, owned by privately held firm ForteInvest, has been targeted by Ukrainian strikes before. The most recent attack on the refinery was last month, as Ukraine has intensified its campaign to reduce domestic fuel supply in Russia.

Russia has been suffering from a gasoline and diesel crunch since the spring, when Ukraine intensified its drone attacks on Russian refineries, aiming to cripple fuel supply to the front lines and to the domestic Russian market. The drone hits on refineries, including deep into Russian territory more than 1,000 miles from the border with Ukraine, have become a nearly daily occurrence.

Russia has been scrambling to ease concerns amid the crisis, which has seen fuel rationing imposed in many regions, gas stations in big cities running out of fuel, and long queues forming at many stations. The campaign's cumulative effect on refining capacity matters beyond the pump: refined-product exports are a key source of revenue for Russia's budget, and extended outages at major plants add pressure on a sector already stretched by sanctions-related constraints on equipment and technology imports.

Source: OilPrice.com — By Charles Kennedy