Russia's Kirishi oil refining complex, one of the country's key oil refining plants, temporarily shut its most efficient crude distillation unit (CDU-6) following a drone attack that ignited a fire on October 4. The disruption will last approximately a month as repair and refurbishment works start.
More specifically, the affected CDU-6 unit has an estimated throughput capacity of nearly 8 million metric tons annually (or about 160,000 barrels daily), equating to some 40 % of the refinery's overall processing capacity. Disruption of the anchor unit threatens to sever production of a wide array of oil products, such as gasoline, diesel, fuel oil—and notably, bitumen, a key residue product used in paving and roofing.
The refinery is owned and operated within Surgutneftegaz's umbrella. Managers are also moving to restore another key unit that was damaged by a drone attack in mid-September online in response to this most recent attack. While CDU-6 is shut down, the complex will maintain operations at about 70 % of nominal capacity by driving other processing units above their normal load capabilities to partially offset lost throughput.
This partial substitution, however, cannot match the production of CDU-6. Russia may thus see a modest decrease in refined product production that could further strain fuel supplies, as the country is already experiencing shortages of some gasoline grades amid ongoing disruption to its energy infrastructure.
To put this into perspective, industry sources show that in 2024 the Kirishi refinery processed about 17.5 million metric tons of crude, representing 6.6 % of Russia's total volume of oil refined. In the same year it produced some 2 million tons of gasoline, 7.1 million tons of diesel, 6.1 million tons of fuel oil, and about 600,000 tons of bitumen. The bitumen manufacturing stream, while a minor portion of output, plays a huge role in road and construction infrastructure in local supply chains.
The shutdown of CDU-6 therefore presents a two-pronged challenge: first, lowering the combined volume of processed residues and processed fuel products (including bitumen), and secondly placing pressure on the remaining facilities in the sense that they must work under greater stress to continue throughput. Restoration of the refinery to full production depends primarily on timely repair, stable operations, and precaution against future assaults.
In the coming days, restoration of CDU-6 will be key to resuming regular volumes of gasoline and diesel production, as well as to reinstating the entire range of residue production such as bitumen. In the meantime, national and regional bitumen markets could see tightening supply or pricing. In the broader context of continued dangers posed by attacks on energy infrastructure security, the incident serves as a reminder of how vulnerable integrated refinery systems are. For refinery investors in the bitumen and asphalt sectors, constant monitoring of refinery operations and supply trends will be required as things continue to develop.
In short, the shutdown at the Kirishi refinery following the blaze from a drone-borne attack on CDU-6 is not just a short-term speed bump—it is an energetic stress test on Russia's refining network and on petroleum derivatives and bitumen downstream supply chains. Reversing to full product flows will be conditional on repair velocity, operational resilience, and the capacity to avoid further sabotage episodes.
By Bitumenmag
Bitumen, Market, Price
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