A drop in Russian gasoline production following drone attacks on major oil refineries has prompted the Kremlin to turn to Alexander Lukashenko for help.
To avoid fuel shortages, Moscow will start buying Belarusian gasoline after 100-150 thousand. tons per month. This was announced by Pavel Zavalnas, head of the Energy Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Commodity Exchange Forum on Thursday.
“They agreed to help, although it is clear that the Belarusians have an export alternative (more profitable),” Mr. Zavalnas said (quoted by Reuters).
Negotiations with Belarus took place at the level of governments and oil companies, said agency sources familiar with the situation. According to the plan, Russian oil producers will increase shipments of raw materials to two Belarusian oil refineries – “Naftan” and “Mozyr”, each of which has a capacity of 12 million barrels. tons per year. Fuel from these plants will enter the Russian market, which has lost a tenth of its gasoline production since early March, according to Rosstat.
According to Reuters, due to drone attacks, 14% of the capacity of Russian oil refineries has been shut down by emergency, of which almost 10% – at companies producing gasoline and diesel fuel for the domestic market.
March 13 Rosneft’s largest oil refinery in Ryazan, which supplies fuel to Moscow and the region, was struck by a drone. After the fire, two units at the plant stopped working, as a result of which the production of gasoline decreased by a third (3.3 thousand tons per day), and the production of diesel fuel – by more than half (5.8 thousand tons per day). On March 16, a drone attack set fire to the only working oil refinery unit at the Syzran refinery (also owned by Rosneft), and on March 28 it became known that the company’s Kuibyshev refinery also stopped working. Last weekend, a fire gutted one of the two oil refineries and shut down the second a few days later.
Russia is already significantly increasing the purchase of Belarusian gasoline, Reuters sources say: there was no such supply in January, in February it reached 590 tons, and in the first two weeks of March – almost 3 thousand. tons. The future situation will depend on how quickly the factories can be repaired.
During the week to March 24, the production of gasoline intended for engines in Russia decreased by 7.4% and amounted to 754.6 thousand. tons, Rosstat reported on Wednesday.
In three weeks, the economy lost 10.1% of its gasoline output. Diesel production over the same period fell 3.9% to 1.648 million. tons.
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