Fuel shortage deepens in St. Petersburg as gasoline supplies plunge

Fuel shortages in St. Petersburg are worsening rapidly, with long queues forming at filling stations operated by major oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, according to local data and an analysis by economist Janis Kluge.

Data from the WhereIsGas service indicate that filling stations offering only diesel fuel, with gasoline unavailable, now account for a large share of the stations operating in the city. Many others are reporting queues of 50 vehicles or more.

Kluge’s analysis shows that the situation deteriorated sharply during the first 10 days of September. Between September 6 and 10, the proportion of filling stations operating normally fell to 30–40%, compared with 95% in August.

The most significant shortage concerns the two most widely used gasoline grades, AI-92 and AI-95. Their availability fell from 50–60% at the end of August to below 20% in early September. The resulting surge in demand has caused queues of 100 vehicles or more at roughly one-third of the filling stations that remain operational.

Higher-grade gasoline has become even harder to find, with AI-98 and AI-100 premium fuel virtually unavailable.

The disruption is attributed to the shutdown of the Kinef oil refinery in the Leningrad region following a drone attack on August 30. According to sources cited by the report, two primary crude-oil processing units at the refinery were damaged, forcing the facility to halt oil refining entirely.

Kinef is the main supplier of petroleum products to St. Petersburg, making the refinery’s shutdown a key factor behind the deteriorating fuel situation in Russia’s second-largest city.

By Tamilla Hasanova