According to Bloomberg, Rosneft operates 12 oil refineries, which account for about a third of Russia’s oil refining capacity. Of the 15 confirmed drone attacks on Russian refineries in September, five targeted the company’s facilities, which supply fuel to the European part of Russia.
One of the hardest hit was the Ryazan refinery, which supplies fuel to Moscow and neighboring regions. After the first attack in May, it was idle for more than half the time, and when it was operating, utilization was noticeably below design capacity. The Syzran refinery was either completely idle or operating at less than a third of capacity for most of the past six months, and the Tuapse refinery has not been operating since April.
Bloomberg writes that Rosneft managed to restart some refineries within weeks after the attacks, but they were then hit again when repairs were nearing completion. Because damaged equipment has to be constantly restored, costs are rising, and at some facilities repairs were deliberately stretched over weeks instead of a few days.
Attempts to protect the facilities with shipping containers, nets, and steel cables proved ineffective, the publication says. It is especially difficult to repair damage at secondary processing units — catalytic cracking units, reformers, and hydrocracking units — for which parts used to be purchased in the West, while now the company relies on Russian analogues and supplies from China.
Rosneft’s net profit for the first half of the year fell by almost 20% to 200 billion rubles ($2.4 billion), and the ratio of net debt to EBITDA at the end of June rose to 1.8, the highest in more than five years. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which owns 18.4% of Rosneft, is monitoring the company’s financial position and the scale of damage to its infrastructure; during the war in Ukraine, its dividend payments dropped sharply, three Qatari officials said.
Bloomberg also writes about signs of financial trouble at Moscow Credit Bank, which market participants consider close to Igor Sechin: according to the publication, MKB faced troubled loans worth $8 billion. Against this backdrop, Moscow is trying to use Trump to secure an end to strikes on refineries.
