Severe damage keeps major refinery offline in Russia's Leningrad region

The Kirishinefteorgsintez (KINEF) oil refinery in Russia’s Leningrad region has yet to resume shipments of petroleum products following a strike by Ukrainian forces on May 5, according to sources cited by ASTRA.

All primary oil refining units at the facility have been taken out of operation, the sources said.

Surgutneftegaz has informed counterparties that shipments from KINEF LLC have been suspended due to damage to technological infrastructure caused by an external impact. In a letter sent to the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange, the company referred to “force majeure circumstances” preventing it from fulfilling contractual obligations. ASTRA reported that the authenticity of the document was confirmed by a company involved in KINEF supply chains.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the refinery has effectively not been operational since the end of March, following an earlier strike. The facility was only briefly and partially restarted before the latest attack.

“After the March attack, the plant effectively stopped. This was hardly reported anywhere except by Bloomberg, and even then, in Russia, those reports were barely cited. Just as repairs were completed, a new strike occurred on May 5. The document on this situation has been in my email for a week already [since May 8 — ed.],” the source said.

The same source added that all primary refining units were completely disabled in the latest attack, while additional damage was inflicted on pipelines, storage tanks, and the main checkpoint.

“They destroyed all primary refining units. In addition, the pipeline, storage tanks, and the main checkpoint were damaged. The largest unit took several months to restore. We had just started to resume shipments — and on May 5, a new strike occurred,” the source said.

The strike on the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery during the night of May 5 was confirmed by ASTRA’s OSINT analysts and Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU). Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko also reported a fire in the industrial zone following the incident.

KINEF is the largest oil refinery in northwestern Russia, with an annual processing capacity of approximately 17–19 million tons of crude oil. The facility produces gasoline, diesel fuel, kerosene, fuel oil, and petrochemical products.

By Tamilla Hasanova