Lukoil’s refinery in Volgograd, Russia, was struck again Sunday by a drone attack that caused a fire and reportedly damaged a key unit.
The refinery includes Russia’s largest base oil plant and is also a main finished lubricant blending site for Lukoil, the country’s largest lube marketer. This was the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, including several that house base oil plants. It was also the second such incident at the Volgograd refinery this year.
The region’s governor, Andrey Bocharov, confirmed the incident on the regional administration’s Telegram channel.
“A fire broke out as a result of the drone’s crash and subsequent detonation on the refinery premises,” Bocharov stated. “Fire and rescue teams swiftly responded, successfully extinguishing the blaze. Fortunately, there were no casualties.”
Another Russian news outlet reported that the fire resulted from a Ukrainian drone that had been downed by air defense systems.
Lukoil hasn’t issued any official statements regarding the incident. Unlike some previous incidents, authorities did not say that operations were unaffected by this attack. News outlet Volgograd Online reported that the drone’s impact damaged the refinery’s atmospheric and vacuum distillation unit, a primary oil processing unit with capacity to process 1 million metric tons of crude oil per year. The report did not discuss the extent of damage or the impact on operations.
The Volgograd refinery boasts an overall throughput capacity of approximately 15 million t/y. Its base oil plant can produce 270,000 t/y of API Group I stocks, 220,000 t/y of Group II and 30,000 t/y of Group III.
The site also houses a lubricants blending plant operated by Lukoil and a grease factory managed by Intesmo, a joint venture between Lukoil’s lubricant division, LLK International, and Russia’s state-owned railroad operator, RZD.
In recent months, nearly all Russian refineries in the European part of the country have faced drone attacks and production interruptions, resulting in reduced oil processing capacity and an increase in prices for petroleum products, such as fuels and lubricants.