Two industry sources confirmed on Thursday that the Lukoil owned Volgograd refinery in Russia's southern region halted oil processing on Tuesday. This was after a fire broke out following an attack by Ukrainians.

In January, peace talks led to a slight decrease in the intensity of Ukrainian attacks against Russian energy infrastructure. However, in recent days they have increased.

A source?said a critical piece of equipment was damaged, the crude distillation unit CDU-1. This unit accounts for 40% of the plant's total capacity.

CDU-1 has a capacity of around 18,600 metric tonnes per day or 140,000 barrels.

Lukoil did not respond to a comment request.

The Volgograd refinery will process?13.5 million metric tons of crude oil in?2024, which is around 5% of the total volume of Russian refineries.

The country produced 6 million?tons?of diesel and 1.9 million tonne of gasoline. It also produced 700,000 tonne of fuel oil. Louise Heavens, Louise Heavens (Reporting)

(source: Reuters)