Unplanned Outages at 17 Russian Refineries Average 3.8 million bpd Offline in August 2026

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Written by Jesse Broehl, Editor-in-Chief, Breaking Energy News (BEN), IIR News Intelligence, (Sugar Land, Texas)

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The month of August has shown Russian refinery capacity was severely impacted by successful drone strikes by Ukraine. Unplanned outages at 17 refineries averaged 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in August.

The accompanying chart below from IIR Energy's Energy Capacity Insights (ECI) tool shows monthly average planned and unplanned capacity outages at Russian refineries. Unplanned crude and condensate outages averaged around 3.805 million bpd in August, down from the July average of 4.270 million bpd.

However, the August average could still rise; there is often a delay between when attacks occur and resulting outages can be confirmed.

September and October unplanned outages may also rise as ongoing attacks and delays in restart are likely, if trends continue.

Russian Refinery Capacity, Crude Units, Offline Capacity, bpd

Source: IIR Energy, Energy Capacity Insights (ECI) tool

Three More Secondary Hits on Refineries in Last Week of August

In just the week ending August 28, IIR Energy reported on secondary strikes prolonging restart prospects at the following refineries: Russian's fourth-largest refinery, the 359,200-bpd Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez Refinery (story), the 100,000-bpd Novoshakhtinskiy Refinery (story), and the 160,600-bpd Novokuibyshevsk refinery (story).

Seventeen Russian Refineries Saw Capacity Knocked Offline in August

By specific crude units analysis, there were 44 crude units at 17 Russian refineries that faced an unplanned outage. The following list and map shows specifically which Russian refineries had crude capacity knocked offline. Most of those capacity outages persisted through August and will continue into September and potentially beyond (especially if follow-up strikes continue). For the same data on IIR Energy, see this link.

Source: IIR Energy

Impact of the Outages on the War

Russian President Vladimir Putin's war machine is largely funded by the country's oil and gas revenues, and fuel shortages throughout the country are causing widespread problems for the country's broader economy and its population. Whether these outages at Russian refineries are having the intended effect by Ukraine of putting any brakes on Putin's war effort is for other news publications to cover in more detail. In brief, it does not appear Putin is being deterred. He has shown a remarkable and morbid resolve to continue the war despite losing hundreds of thousands of soldiers for meager gains. IIR Energy will continue to track the conflict's impacts on refineries as the war goes into four and a half years.

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