“The flame engulfed a condensate production facility with a capacity of 3 million metric tons per year, the agency’s interlocutors said”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
According to them, the flames engulfed a condensate production facility with a capacity of 3 million metric tons per year. It produces gasoline and diesel fuel.
They said the plant, located near the Caspian Sea, about 1,675 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, could only resume production in weeks or months. Gazprom did not respond to a Reuters request for comment by the time of publication.
On September 22, the governor of the Astrakhan region, Ihor Babushkin, announced an attack by Ukrainian drones on the region, the main target of which was an “industrial facility.” He did not specify the name of the company.
As Reuters adds, since Monday, the St. Petersburg Commodity Exchange has suspended the sale of wholesale batches of fuel from the Astrakhan Plant.
The factory also was hit by drones in early February, which stopped fuel production. Industry sources told the agency that the damaged plant resumed operations in late August.
According to Reuters, in 2024 the plant processed 1.8 million tons of stable condensate, producing 800,000 tons of gasoline, 600,000 tons of diesel fuel, and 300,000 tons of fuel oil.
After starting a full-scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine, Russian regions, as well as the territories occupied by the Russian Federation regularly are under fire and drone attacks.
The Ukrainian side emphasizes that it is working to weaken the rear bases of the Russian army in order to reduce the offensive potential of the aggressor.
