One of Russia's largest refineries halted processing after drone attack

The NORSI oil refinery in Kstovo, Nizhny Novgorod region, halted oil processing after a drone attack on August 26. The facility is owned by Lukoil and is Russia's fourth-largest refinery by capacity and the second-largest gasoline producer in the country.

The plant shutdown is reported by Reuters, citing industry sources. Thus, the first data on the production consequences of the strike, after which a large-scale fire was recorded on the plant's territory in the morning, have emerged.

The Ukrainian side had earlier officially confirmed the refinery was hit. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that a major fire broke out after a night attack on Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez.

NORSI is capable of processing about 16 million tons of oil per year, or about 320 thousand barrels per day. This makes the plant one of the key facilities in Russia's oil refining industry.

The refinery is also of particular importance for the Russian motor fuel market. Its annual production amounts to about 5 million tons of gasoline and more than 5 million tons of diesel fuel.

At the time of publication, Lukoil had not reported how serious the damage to the equipment was or when the plant would be able to resume processing. Reuters also has not yet provided a forecast for the recovery timeline of the refinery's operations after the latest strike.

NORSI had already been subjected to drone attacks several times in 2026. After one of the strikes in June, a primary oil processing unit with a capacity of about 12,000 tons per day, which accounted for about a quarter of the plant's production capabilities, was damaged.

Another attack in early July also led to a processing halt. Thus, the new strike hit a facility that had already taken some equipment out of service several times in recent months.

The attack on the Kstovo refinery occurred amid a series of strikes on Russia's oil refining industry. In August, refineries in Perm, Orsk, Novokuybyshevsk, Krasnodar Krai, and other regions of Russia also came under attack.

Ukraine states that it strikes Russian oil industry facilities because energy sector revenues are used to finance the war, and petroleum products are needed to supply Russian troops.

Based on materials from: Reuters, Ministry of Defense of Ukraine