Oryol, Rostov oil depots hit by drone attacks on Russian storage facilities

Oil storage facilities in Russia's Oryol and Rostov regions have been set on fire after becoming the target of Ukrainian drone strikes in recent days, according to local administrations and media.

A drone downed in central Russia's Oryol region damaged oil tanks at a local oil depot July 15, the local Oryol News agency reported, citing the regional vice-governor Vladimir Ivanovsky.

The drone fell near the village of Malaya Sakhanka and damaged tanks with a capacity of around 1,000 cu m, Oryol News wrote, adding that more sophisticated Ukrainian tactics have made drones harder for Russian defenses to identify.

In a separate incident in Russia's south, another oil depot in the Rostov region's Tsimlyansk district was targeted July 13, resulting in a fire breaking out at 4 am local time that raged for around six hours before it was extinguished, Rostov governor Vasiliy Golubev said via Telegram later that day.

The blaze covered an area of around 200 square meters, he said, requiring 49 emergency service workers to be deployed to the site. Ukrainian news outlet RBC reported that the depot stored around 12,500 cu m of fuel, including diesel and gasoline.

Central and southern Russia have become frequent targets for recent drone offensives, which have refocused closer to the border with Ukraine after previously having ventured as far as 1,300 km into Russian territory. Last week, an oil depot in Kalach-on-Don, in central Russia's Volgograd, was damaged by drones July 9, while two depots in the Krasnodar region were hit July 6.

Attacks focusing on oil product reserves have enabled Ukraine to chip away at strategically important fuel supplies for Russia's military, analysts have said.

A break in larger-scale offensives targeting refinery operations has helped Russia to restore swathes of production capacity that was left damaged by previous strike waves. No new attacks on refining assets have been reported since June 21, when the 132,000 b/d Ilsky refinery was targeted.

Shift in focus

The shift in focus comes as Ukraine has struggled to hold ground on the front line in its war with Russia, facing advances from Russian forces in Avdiivka and other areas. New security agreements and aid packages approved at the July 9-11 NATO summit could help to firm up Ukraine's position, however the immediate threat of the Russian military in the south could keep focus on nearby oil depots. Support from the US also encourages Ukraine to abide by Washington's preference that refining assets not be targeted, which could risk dealing upside shock to global oil prices.

For Russia, a respite from attacks on its largest inland refineries has enabled production capacity to rebound strongly, though concerns around domestic fuel supplies appear to have lingered. On July 12, the country's Federal Antimonopoly Committee advised that a gasoline export ban should be reinstated from Aug. 1 to safeguard against supply shocks, suggesting continued insecurity around availability ahead of the peak summer demand season.

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters July 15 that the government will assess the need for an export ban at the end of July. He noted rising gasoline prices on the St Petersburg as a "sensitive market reaction", but asserted that stocks are available and refineries ending maintenance will provide an injection.

"There is simply a schedule of repairs of some refineries, which should soon come out of repairs, and the volumes will be as before. We don't have any problems now. We have specially created stocks for this, but the market is reacting, as it is, to the general situation with the repair campaign. Unfortunately, today the market is quite sensitive. We will calm it down. Nothing terrible is happening," he said, according to reporting by RIA Novosti.