Maxim Shevyrenkov, head of the Center for Commodity Market Analysis at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Forbes on the impact of UAV attacks on Russian refineries on gasoline shipments to the Russian domestic market.
At the moment, the country is not in danger of gasoline shortages, despite reports of attacks on refineries, Maxim Shevyrenkov says.
Companies are promptly repairing equipment, Shevyrenkov adds, and although these are additional costs, they are not very critical at current high oil prices."Attacks and even hits to processing plants do not mean shutdowns of plants, and damage can be eliminated in a relatively short time, from one day to two weeks," he says.
Russia consumes over 3 million tons of gasoline every month, the expert says. But if Russian refineries do not have time to deliver products to a certain region promptly, the shortage can be easily covered by supplies from Belarus. It is capable of shipping over 200,000 tons of gasoline per month, and Belarusian oil products are imported to Russia duty-free, Shevyrenkov reminds. There are two refineries in Belarus — Mozyrsky and Novopolotsky (Naftan), each of which is capable of processing 12 million tons of oil per year. Both companies are provided with oil from Russia, in return supplying part of the produced petroleum products to Russia.