Kazakhstan Monitors Oil Output After Russian Gas Plant Hit

(Bloomberg) -- Kazakhstan’s energy ministry is in contact with the nation’s oil producers following a drone attack on the large Orenburg gas-processing plant in Russia, the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the hit on Orenburg on social media, and also said it struck the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region overnight, damaging a primary crude oil processing unit and causing a fire and a series of explosions. 

In both instances well over 1,000 kilometers from the nations’ shared border, the drone attacks underscore Ukraine’s expanding long-range strike capabilities. 

The strikes were among measures “to destroy critical enterprises involved in meeting the needs of the Russian armed forces and undermine the Russian military-industrial base,” Ukraine’s General Staff said. 

The Orenburg incident may impact Kazakh oil production, the ministry said, as the giant facility has stopped accepting gas from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak project.

Karachaganak, near the Russian border, is one of Kazakhstan’s three key oil and gas projects. Because oil and gas there are co-produced, operators can’t cut gas output without also reducing crude. 

Any slowdown at Karachaganak would put pressure on overall production of oil within Kazakhstan. 

Drones overnight struck the plant in the Orenburg region, some 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) east of Kyiv but only about 150 km from the Kazah border. It was described by Ukraine as one of the largest gas processing complexes in Russia. 

The attack sparked a fire at one of the plant’s units, regional governor Yevgeny Solntsev said Sunday on Telegram. Flight restrictions were imposed for a time at Orenburg’s airport, Interfax reported, citing air transport officials. 

Ukraine’s General Staff said the strike damaged one of the plant’s gas processing and purification units.

Russia over the past month has reported a growing number of drone attacks deep inside its territory, with some reaching nearly 2,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border — further testing the country’s air defenses. Ukrainian UAVs have targeted facilities as far afield as Siberia and the Ural mountains.

Russia hasn’t commented directly on the Novokuibyshevsk strike, and Ukraine’s claims can’t be verified independently. The Samara region’s governor said merely that the area was targeted with drones overnight, without specifying what was hit or whether there was damage.

Rosneft PJSC’s Novokuibyshevsk refinery is a producer of petroleum products with a capacity of 170,000 barrels per day. 

Separately, Ukraine’s air force reported 62 Russian drones over its territory overnight, 40 of which were shot down or suppressed. 

The Russian defense ministry said it struck a HIMARS rocket launch system in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, about 18 km from the Russian border. 

(Updates with comments from Ukraine’s General Staff, from second paragraph.)

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