Russia's Fuel Paradox: When Oil Abundance Isn't Enough Russia, the world's second largest oil producer, has been grappling with a peculiar problem: despite having vast oil reserves, it is struggling to turn that crude into usable fuels.
The root of this paradox lies in production versus processing – Ukraine's relentless drone strikes on refineries have crippled Russia's ability to refine its own oil.
The damage inflicted by these strikes goes beyond the immediate destruction of equipment; it also affects overall output as processing units become non operational. In 2024, Russian refineries processed about 5.