Russia’s Energy Backbone Under Fire as Drones Hit Key Rosneft Refinery in Samara Region

Strike drones attacked a major oil refinery in Russia’s Samara region, according to reports from residents and the OSINT community Supernova+ on January 2.

Explosions were heard in the city of Novokuybyshevsk shortly after midnight, with videos showing what appeared to be a large fire at the Rosneft–owned Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery.

Authorities declared a drone threat across the Samara region immediately after midnight. By around 1 a.m. local time, the first videos began circulating online, showing flames rising from the refinery complex.

“Novokuybyshevsk … KNPR … a flare is burning. The communists’ tactic of venting accumulated gas in case of danger,” one caption accompanying the Supernova+ footage read.

Russian social media channels reported that residents heard more than 10 powerful explosions over Novokuybyshevsk during the night. Witnesses also described bright flashes in the sky, consistent with the activation of Russian air defense systems.

Videos shared online show sustained flames inside the refinery grounds following the drone strike.

By morning, Russia’s Ministry of Defense claimed its air defenses had intercepted or shot down 64 drones overnight, including 20 over the Samara region. Local authorities had not issued any official statements at the time of publication, and the extent of the damage to the facility remains unclear.

The Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery is part of Rosneft’s production network and has an annual processing capacity of approximately 8.8 million metric tons of crude oil—roughly 176,000 barrels per day.

The facility is also Russia’s only producer of synthetic ethanol and para-tert-butylphenol, making it a strategically significant asset within the country’s fuel and chemical supply chain.

Earlier, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces carried out a series of coordinated long-range drone strikes against Russian military targets in the temporarily occupied parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

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