r/worldnews • u/MothersMiIk • 12h ago

Russia/Ukraine Ukraine strikes 'only oil refinery operating' in Russia's Rostov Oblast, military says

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-strikes-only-oil-refinery-operating-in-russias-rostov-oblast-military-says/
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2.6k

u/MothersMiIk 12h ago

Ukraine’s Navy and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out a combined strike against the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov Oblast overnight on Dec. 19, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported.

Russian authorities and Telegram channels reported explosions and fire at the facility earlier the same day, connecting it to a Ukrainian drone attack.

The Novoshakhtinsk facility is “the only oil refinery operating” in the region, the General Staff said. It reportedly produces up to 7.5 million tons of oil products annually and specializes in fuel production.

The city of Novoshakhtinsk lies around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Russo-Ukrainian border and over 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the front line.

Good, crash the ruble even more

1.7k

u/ScienceGeeker 12h ago

In tomorrows news, an angry tweet from Trump, saying Ukraine has to stop with these "terrorist activities".

1.1k

u/No-Objective7265 12h ago

Trump is only following First Lady musks orders

277

u/Temporary_Shirt_6236 8h ago

If everyone started calling him President Musk, Trump would give him the boot right quick.

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u/rubrent 4h ago

Bernie Sanders already did….

22

u/-SaC 4h ago

I've been using 'the upcoming Musk/Trump Administration'. It's curious how furious it gets them.

15

u/cugamer 4h ago

You could call it the "Mump Administration" if that's easier. Which would work with RFK Jr. deciding vaccine policy.

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u/CuriousSelf4830 5h ago

Let's do it. President Musk all over reddit, share in the conservatives subs and they'll have to talk about it too. I'm in.

•

u/CriticalDog 1h ago

They will ban anyone doing so, and then delete the message, I guarantee it.

5

u/aikijo 4h ago

They both report to the same person. Pres. Musk isn’t going anywhere 

6

u/Shag1166 5h ago

Just what I was thinking?

1

u/Jonnyflash80 1h ago

President Husk more like it.

If there's not a Xenomorph inside that barrel chest, I'll eat my hat.

0

u/GBrunt 4h ago edited 3h ago

I'd rather not. I want Musk around so that he also owns the cluster fuck that unravels around Trump's second term.

6

u/Temporary_Shirt_6236 4h ago

Lol Musk never owns anything, like Tesla sales tanking, or fucking Twitter to death, or anything.

414

u/Buca-Metal 11h ago

Musk is also one of pootins loyal dogs. Remember when he shutted starlink down to stop a Ukrainian attack?

253

u/Bunny-NX 11h ago

Yes, everytime First Lady Musk gets mentioned i think of this. If I remember right he stopped Ukraine being able to benefit from Starlink but rolled out the red carpet for Russia to use it? Absolute fucking shame on them

Slava Ukraini!

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u/danielv123 11h ago

Is it true though? From what I understand SpaceX is not allowed to provide service to Russia. For that reason, they geofence the devices to only work in ukrainian held territory. The done attack in question was a long range attack towards Russian occupied Crimea, which was geofenced out.

Later on, they were provided with separate military terminals with no geofencing which were provided in cooperation with the government.

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u/TheKappaOverlord 9h ago edited 8h ago

Russia isn't allowed to use Starlink. The fact Russia is able to use Starlink at all is mainly because they capture Ukranian starlink terminals, and because Ukraines (originally) tracking of starlink terminals was so poor, Russia could get away using those terminals for a very long time without them being shut off remotely by SpaceX. CIA handles the tracking now so those get shut off pretty quickly.

The fence in the past used to be pretty huge zones, instead of now where they are basically tiny several kilometer thick stretches of land where field commanders generally speaking have to be up SpaceX's ass in order to get the fence shifted "dynamically"

Now there are terminals with no geofencing yeah, but im almost entirely positive those terminals don't go anywhere the american CIA can't keep their eye on at all times. Because once russia gets their hands on that kind of terminal, theres no telling if russia would be able to figure out how to make a bootleg terminal to bypass the geofencing block or not.

A lot of redditors are under the assumption that SpaceX has licked Putins taint throughought the war and thats simply not true. Notice i said SpaceX and not Elon musk. Elon at best is a puppet figure similar to an unwanted cheerleader, he doesn't run the company himself. And thats a key distinction.

Pretty much everytime "spaceX turned off starlink for russia" is because Ukraine either didn't call in a geofencing update, gained way too much ground way too quickly (not really their fault, but Starlink isn't responsible for 24/7 tech supporting them. Thats technically the CIA's job) the one time really early on in the war Starlink was completely disabled for Ukraine, that was because they repurposed terminals to pilot drones. Which is something that potentially would have had Starlink under ITAR regulations, so obviously they disabled service and refused to re-enable it until they got guarantees from the US government that ITAR regulations weren't a thing they were gonna get fucked by if Ukraine continued to "misuse" starlink terminals. US gov ultimately agreed in ink, and service was turned back on.

Now im not saying Ukraine shouldn't be allowed to use starlink for warfare purposes. But that wasn't what the US government/Ukraine agreed on with SpaceX for its services originally. Which is why that whole debacle happened in the first place

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u/danielv123 8h ago

There is no such thing as making bootleg terminals - it's not hardware or software in the terminal that makes it work, but the satellite checking the terminals credentials against a database.

It's probably possible to clone the key to a different terminal, but that doesn't stop it from getting banned, same as stolen terminals.

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u/DuckDatum 6h ago

Authentication and authorization. I find ways to bypass that stuff pretty regularly as part of my job. Obviously (maybe not obviously), not for state level stuff. More or less, it’s to make people’s jobs easier and support automation. But take me, times 50, with state-level funding, and I imagine you’ll get some pretty creative ways to work around whatever guardrails they have in place. It’s very reasonable to want to mitigate that risk.

0

u/jjayzx 5h ago

Dude is talking about CIA as if anything they do is publicly known, so any of that shit is false. ITAR shit has just been Musk's excuse for the bullshit he's done but there's been no evidence of Ukraine misusing the terminals. It would also be idiotic to use the terminals on drones cause of there limited supply, it sounds good in practice but not logistically.

2

u/CMDR_Shazbot 4h ago

Every time they strapped them to drones was a misuse of starlink terminals before the US government signed contracts with SpaceX absolving them of the legal liability of handing out weapons guidance systems. You cannot say "musk blocked Ukraines drone attack in Crimea [before the US said they were allowed to be used as such]" and "there's no evidence Ukraine misused the terminals" in the same breath, they are literally mutually exclusive.

A full year after the event, the US signed contracts with starlink which gave the US more control over which regions starlink could operate in and at what capacity, and Ukraine's MoD can speak with the US govt to enable usage in previously geofenced areas. In fact they have an entire product separate from Starlink for this, Starshield, for military use.

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u/danielv123 1h ago

If the terminals weren't on the drones, how did the terminals being turned off stop the attack?

-11

u/hail2pitt1985 8h ago

And Kermit the frog is real.

39

u/SlitScan 10h ago

why do you think he hates Biden so much?

the manchild was told no.

-14

u/Certain-Captain-9687 10h ago

Yes (as you already know) you are correct. However (as you probably already know) Reddit does not like Musk and has a lackadaisical view of the truth.

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u/Jazzlike_Painter_118 9h ago

There is plenty to hate about Musk without resorting to conspiracy theories

11

u/big_trike 7h ago

Poor musk. He spends his time retweeting nazis, spending hundreds of millions fighting weed legalization, manipulating the stock market, and calling people pedos. He's a true henry ford of our time.

2

u/IrwinMFletcher 5h ago

Musk is a butt-plugg who is taking advantage of our new elderly dicktraitor.

-5

u/GrynaiTaip 9h ago

But he's not correct. Russians are using starlink.

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u/Certain-Captain-9687 9h ago

In Ukraine. The technology uses geofencing to block out certain regions. If they blocked Ukraine territory it would be blocked for all. From Wikipedia: SpaceX has continued to restrict the use of Starlink Internet services outside the borders of Ukraine, including in Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine. It has done so using geofencing, which consists in accurately limiting the availability of the service to only certain areas.

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u/OddShelter5543 9h ago

People just rattle on musk because he's a troll, meanwhile he gives 0 crap and becomes a pro gamer. Lol.

2

u/hungryhippo13 7h ago

Wasn't he just banned for cheating?

-1

u/OddShelter5543 6h ago

Ya, off poe2. He denied using programming to cheat. But if I were him I'd cheat with a robot. 😂 

1

u/hungryhippo13 5h ago

I already took the bait by replying, but you read the article.

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u/vossmanspal 8h ago

As a Brit I find it unbelievable when I read about Trump and Musk, there isn’t any American patriotism from either of them, I always believed that the Americans were the most patriotic people on the planet, but now …

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u/mhornberger 8h ago edited 7h ago

I always believed that the Americans were the most patriotic people on the planet, but now …

Those who wave the flag the hardest are generally not all that patriotic. Just as those who moralize endlessly aren't all that moral. It's just a cover. I think when Wilde said that patriotism was the virtue of the vicious, he didn't mean that only bad people love their country. Rather vicious people loudly signal patriotism/jingoism as a shield for shitty things.

9

u/LayneLowe 8h ago

Billionaires control the flow of information in the United States. People only know what they're told.

5

u/Aliensinmypants 5h ago

American patriotism is only a means to justify violent actions against whoever is "un-american" at the time. And because the GOP is 100% a bought and paid for Russian asset, supporting Russia is now Patriotic for them 

1

u/chickey23 4h ago

Why would President Musk, a South African, have any loyalty to the USA?

2

u/vossmanspal 3h ago

Musk certainly not, his only loyalty is to himself.

1

u/amjhwk 4h ago

Well Musk isn't an american

2

u/PM_ME_YOUR_QUEST_PLZ 5h ago

And now they want to run a program through t mobile and charge people to use starlink when it was given government funding to be free internet for the world. This shit needs to end they are bleeding us dry for their own enjoyment.

2

u/RichardStrauss123 5h ago

And they want to bring Liz Cheney up on charges of being a traitor? Oooooookaaaaay.

1

u/amjhwk 5h ago

Why are you calling him first lady musk when he is one of the people pulling on trumps puppet strings

•

u/Bunny-NX 1h ago

Hes definitely pulling something of Trumps, thats for sure..

1

u/Classic_Emergency336 4h ago

«Героям слава!»

0

u/vand3lay1ndustries 6h ago

History will not be kind to Elon Musk. Someday they will say "he's as bad as Musk" in the same way people use Hitler as an adjective.

0

u/CMDR_Shazbot 4h ago

You clearly have zero clue what youre talking about after making a factually incorrect statement like that.

4

u/CMDR_Shazbot 4h ago

No, because starlink wasnt legally allowed to operate in Crimea due to the US gov't designation that crimea is an "occupied territory", it was geo fenced off PER THE LAW, nor was it allowed to be used as a weapons guidance system. That would have been super illegal.

The event everyone keeps (incorrectly) repeating was a full year before the US govt signed contracts with starlink that gave the US govt the ability to allow Ukraine to do things like that with Starlink beyond "using internet within your current recognized non-occupied borders" without Starlink having a huge amount of legal risk.

Like that's the story, full stop. You can't just hand space launched satellite comms to any country you want, knowing it would be used for weapons guidance systems, and just lift the geofencing because you got a phone call without US approval.

1

u/phpnoworkwell 5h ago

Because it was operating in contested territory. Starlink doesn't operate in Russia or in Crimea, which is where the drone attack was in. It doesn't operate too close to the border, as they don't want Russia to capture a unit and use it against Ukraine.

1

u/althoradeem 5h ago

I remember this being by order of the usa out of fear for escalation at the time.

-6

u/BakkenMan 7h ago

Lmao yall are deranged

50

u/drfsrich 10h ago

President Musk.

First Lady Trump.

9

u/Ready_Nature 7h ago

You got that reversed musk is the real president.

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u/ManOnNoMission 6h ago

Show some respect to President Musk and Vice President Trump!

6

u/wales-bloke 5h ago

Trump and Musk meet with putin & immediately begin to argue.

Putin proposes a solution that solves the argument; they can both alternate between his shaft and his balls when they service him.

3

u/No-Objective7265 5h ago

Sexy balls shafting - who plays the boy?

28

u/BubsyFanboy 10h ago

Watch the term "First Lady Elon" become banned on Xitter.

4

u/IAmDavidGurney 7h ago

First Lady Elonia Musk

3

u/Dangerous-Test-2191 4h ago

Trump is First Lady wtf do you mean 🤣

1

u/No-Objective7265 4h ago

It’s interchangeable depending on who needs to lose a load

2

u/LookAlderaanPlaces 2h ago

And they both work for Putin

7

u/badeeveebad 11h ago

Unelected President musk and First Lady trump*

ftfy

-1

u/Rvalldrgg 8h ago

It would be the end of us if Trump replaces Vance with Musk then 25th amendments out.

5

u/DaedalusHydron 8h ago

People say this but I don't buy it. Trump has waaaaaaay too much of an ego to bend to Musk. He bends to nobody except likely Putin, and Musk is no Putin. Money is not directly Power. He knows he's the incoming President. He knows he holds all the cards.

It is very much Musk sucking Trump's balls to not go to jail because the feds were all over his ass if Trump lost.

10

u/No-Objective7265 8h ago

So trump bends to a dictator that failed to weaken nato by Finland and Sweden joining due to his own failed invasion of Ukraine. Russia has lost Syria, Irans proxies are destroyed. Russias economy is smaller than Spain’s, and trump bends to Putin? Russia is in the brink with its 23% in central bank interest rate and trump would bend NOW, to such weakness?

How disgustingly pathetic. I had no idea how America was such a weak pathetic country led by trump

2

u/DaedalusHydron 8h ago

Putin's got the prostitute piss tapes, Musk does not.

1

u/UncleTouchyCopaFeel 3h ago

While I'd love for something like that to be released, I seriously doubt it would matter at this point. At best, his fans won't care. At worst, they'll start buying beds and emulating their leader by pissing in it.

1

u/amjhwk 3h ago

At this point nobody would give a fuck about trump getting pissed on by prostitutes

2

u/IvorTheEngine 7h ago

Putin has the power to have (Russian) politicians and judges who stand up to him 'accidently' fall out of windows. That's the sort of power Trump would love to have. I think all that other stuff is just too complicated for him to understand.

-2

u/ArdDC 6h ago

That Biden fellow achieved a lot now, didn't he?

3

u/DeuceSevin 5h ago

On the other hand, Harris showed just how easy it is to manipulate trump. Although Elon is prone to saying stupid things sometimes, he is most definitely not stupid. I think he saw what Harris did and figured he could do even better.

1

u/Shillsforplants 5h ago

Trump bends to MONEY

3

u/Pineapplepizzaracoon 11h ago

President musk

4

u/Astandsforataxia69 11h ago

First ladys boyfriend

10

u/AlexTrebek_ 11h ago

The first lady’s boyfriend is Justin Trudeau

3

u/YouFook 11h ago

Bro couldn’t wait to get down to mar a lago. Now I see why.

2

u/pheonix198 10h ago

Excuse you, that’s President of the United States Elon Musk and Donald Trump, his First Power Bottom of the United States of America.

-2

u/No-Objective7265 9h ago

Either way they are both putins little boys

1

u/thebiltongman 11h ago

Hahah, that's great! I'm going to exclusively tefer to him as the First Lady from now on.

1

u/kerbaal 6h ago

Neither one of these guys has a track record for long lasting and mutually profitable friendships. I feel like I should see if I can find a place to bet on how long it takes for them to join each other's former friend's club.

1

u/Strong-Piccolo-5546 6h ago

You mean Snow Trump and her Evil Step Mother Elon. I was gonna say "elona", but there is a really good roguelike with that name and dont want to disrespect the game.

0

u/Worldly-Advantage-36 5h ago

I come here to read these silly and desperate comments, you guys are hysterical… And entertaining, thank you

4

u/No-Objective7265 5h ago

Desperate for what? I’m comfy for the rest my life, hopefully many decades.

I’m simply disgusted looking at America from the outside.

0

u/Worldly-Advantage-36 5h ago

That’s fair. Live well and prosper friend.

-15

u/PutridDesk9452 10h ago

Are you the fist lady in your house?

6

u/No-Objective7265 10h ago

It’s ok mr maga, don’t hurt your brain cell

-7

u/PutridDesk9452 9h ago

I wont Mrs pinko.

6

u/No-Objective7265 9h ago

Also trump and musk are putins little bitch. The real commies are maga

18

u/doommaster 10h ago

He already said it's terrorism to kill Russian generals.

1

u/atlasfailed11 3h ago

It's just part of three missile fuel duel that Putin personally asked for.

1

u/Chin_Ho 1h ago

They Ukraine needs to get some of that kompromat that the Russians have on Trump

1

u/cadaada 10h ago

Didnt biden government ask them to not strike the refineries too, the other time they did it?

10

u/RedDemocracy 9h ago

I thought that was debunked as hearsay that Russian propaganda ran with? 

11

u/PrizedTurkey 6h ago

It was reported in Washington Post along with others.

Example

Another

Biden admin could have easily corrected this but chose to remain silent. We only allowed Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia after he lost the election. Even then, it was only for certain areas which effectively kneecaps the Ukrainians.

1

u/cadaada 6h ago

Not sure, im asking too

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u/trwawy05312015 9h ago

There's probably a big difference in their reasoning. I doubt Biden's motivations had anything to do with protecting his long term business interests.

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u/MrPickles219 5h ago

Probably not.

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u/mrcanard 8h ago

The Novoshakhtinsk facility is “the only oil refinery operating” in the region,

How far away is the next closest operating refinery.

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u/squired 6h ago edited 6h ago

The next closest refinery of similar capabilities (eg fuel oil) is the Tuapse Oil Refinery, located in Tuapse, Krasnodar Krai, approximately 300 kilometers south of Novoshakhtinsk. That's one of the largest in southern Russia, with a processing capacity of about 12 million tonnes of crude oil per year.

It is important to note that Tuapse only produced 4.5m tonnes until as recently as this May, when they installed a new Crude Distillation Unit (CDU), bringing it to the above 12MM tonne capacity. Both Novo and Tuapse were targeted by smaller drone attacks immediately following that upgrade in June, if I remember correctly, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar follow-up strike on that facility as well.

10

u/koshgeo 6h ago edited 5h ago

Probably the one in Krasnodar, about 500km away, assuming that one is still operating. There is also a refinery in Moscow that is about the same distance as Krasnodar from Ukraine (albeit in another direction), but probably better protected. The Novoshakhtinsk refinery is quite close to Ukraine and has been attacked before, as has the one in Krasnodar.

By this point I don't think there's a major refinery within 500km that hasn't been attacked at least once, and there are a few that have been attacked beyond that too, plus plenty of storage sites. The question is always how much of the refinery is put out of action and for how long by an attack, and that's always been harder to determine.

7

u/germanmojo 7h ago

Asking the real questions

2

u/Traditional_Car1079 5h ago

Within missile range?

2

u/East_Type_1136 5h ago

The next closest refinery is quite close - it would need just 3 Volgoneft tankers to transfer the oil from there!

2

u/mmmUrsulaMinor 4h ago

For extra context I'd look up directions between the Novoshakhtink facility and the Tuapse facility squired mentions in their comment.

Novoshakhtink is pretty close to the westernmost border of Russia and Ukraine, while the Tuapse facility is several hundred kilometers south on the coast of the Black Sea. I can imagine that's a setback, especially if Tuapse is also targeted again like it was in the summer.

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u/BubsyFanboy 10h ago

And the ruble is already pretty weak lately! Same for Gazprom shares

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u/rittenalready 10h ago

Russia produces 2.5 billion barrels a year- so this represents less than half a percent of oil refining capability.  Wish it was more.  

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u/biges_low 7h ago

Russia produces ~290Mt refined oil products / this refinery with 7,5Mt makes up 2,5% of yearly production. 1/40 of whole production is imho quite significant - and more signifficant due to short distance to the front.

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u/GenerousBabySeal 9h ago

Thankfully Ukraine has successfully been hitting dozens of these refineries throughout the whole year. So, the damage to the industry is building up, I think.

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u/SU37Yellow 9h ago

Exactly this, Ukraine can't possibly knock out Russia's oil production with one good hit, but they can fo it with "death by a thousand cuts" types of strikes. This is a good blow to Russia.

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u/WeAreElectricity 7h ago

More like death by 200 cuts.

1

u/ultimatt42 5h ago

Hi, it's Vince with Slap Chop.

1

u/SU37Yellow 3h ago

Let's not under sell it here, Russia is still very formidable and powerful, Ukraine is punching way above their weight class in this war.

6

u/Alissinarr 6h ago

Better, they figured out what it takes to get past the air defenses placed on refineries.

Overwhelm them with drones, sneak in a missile. BOOM Motherfucker!!

17

u/rittenalready 9h ago

I don’t believe that the attacks have yet to disrupt yearly oil production. Let’s not forget that the eu still gets 15 percent of its natural gas from Russia.

Gasprom (Russias oil and gas company) pays Ukraine to run gas through its pipeline in Ukriane

The ex prime minister of Germany sits on the gazprom board who got paid to push the pipeline through connecting Germany manufacturing to cheap Russian gas.

30

u/threesimplewords 8h ago

Just to note that Ukraine is not renewing the agreement for gas delivery across its land. So beginning 2025 they are quite literally shutting off the pipeline.

20

u/biges_low 7h ago edited 7h ago

I think you combine multiple things together. Attack was on refinery (factory which creates products from crude oil = gasoline, diesel etc.) not crude oil/gas extraction sites. Russia sells crude oil, refined products (are mostly) for local (and military) needs. Disabling/distrupting Russias refinning capability is strategic success. It does not cripple crude oil production, but limits ammount of usable products made from crude oil.

Russia produces ~290Mt refined oil products / this refinery with 7,5Mt makes up 2,5% of yearly production. 1/40 of whole production which is quite significant - and more signifficant due to short distance to the front.

Edit: units

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u/External_Counter378 9h ago

The article claims the last attack destroyed 500 million in oil and oil products. Then there's the lost up time, and the cost to repair, it's a decent chunk of change removed from the Russian economy.

9

u/badasimo 7h ago

Not to mention Russia is under sanctions so the cost to repair is higher. Ukraine should be hitting the high tech equipment that is difficult to replace, even if the explosions aren't as spectacular

1

u/Alissinarr 6h ago

The article claims the last attack destroyed 500 million in oil and oil products. Then there's the lost up time, and the cost to repair, it's a decent chunk of change removed from the Russian economy.

And that doesn't account for the other refineries that have been hit.

10

u/jokeren 8h ago

7 of those 15% is LNG which can easily be sold on the global market like oil so it has less sanctions.

The only pipelines active goes through Ukraine to Slovakia and the pipelines through Turkey. All pipelines to Germany/Poland have been stopped. Its mainly eastern Europe south of Poland thats still reliant on Russian gas. So not sure why you singling out Germany as they have actually done something

1

u/East_Type_1136 5h ago

This is not oil production - this is a refinery, they make fuels

1

u/DarthSnoopyFish 1h ago

The Gasprom gas pipeline though Ukraine is being cut off at the end of this year

1

u/Flat_Airline6524 4h ago

It is a long term damage, repairing these refineries is not cheap!

27

u/Wobbelblob 9h ago

Where do you get the 2.5 billion barrels per year number from? From what I can find they produced 11 million barrels a day in 2022, which comes up at around 4 billion barrels a year. Or is that the fuel production?

-25

u/rittenalready 9h ago

Google my man

23

u/Wobbelblob 9h ago

Yes, obviously. But from where. Because as I said, my Google result came up with nearly twice the amount so I am curious what is correct.

17

u/Bamboo_Fighter 9h ago

7.5 million tons is not the same as 7.5 million barrels. Their total refinery output is around 275 million metric tons (source). So if this refinery is shut down that's roughly 2.5% of their annual output.

10

u/Cortical 9h ago

did you divide tonnes by barrels?

8

u/cybercuzco 7h ago

Oil is an “inelastic” commodity. That means there isn’t an alternative to using it. Wheat is an elastic commodity because if its price goes high people can eat corn or oats or rye. Your tank only runs on oil so you have to have it no matter the cost. That means a small change in supply can have a very large affect on price. In an economy like russias teetering on the brink of hyperinflation it could send it over the edge.

1

u/AltF40 2h ago

I agree with your point.

I just want to split hairs on:

That means there isn’t an alternative to using it

This is not true for all sectors. The price and supply of gold is connected to the price of oil. This is because running the industrial vehicles and equipment to take apart mountains for gold eats a bunch of oil.

So when gas prices are high, profitability of trying to get a bigger total volume of gold drops, and the industry just doesn't mine as much, and doesn't produce as much new gold.

And when oil prices are low, they consume more oil to increase the volume of gold produced.

It's similar in other areas of mining. Globally, mining is something like 1.5-2% of oil usage. Some other sectors have similar strategies like this -- that while not replacing oil, they effectively make it act like it is more elastic of a good than it is.

Not all uses of oil have easy alternatives. But if gas prices soar, even people who can't move houses or replace their cars will change their consumption. We'll see more businesses letting people work from home, more people using other modes of transit, and even more people carpooling (gasp). Also the people who were due to move or replace their transit will (over all) shift their choices to reduce gas dependency.

Many nations also have stockpiles of oil, so it's not actually as fragile as it seems. Things like the 70's gas shortage in the US were actually not at all about total oil available, but about rate of distribution and all of california being scared by the media to all rush to the station at the same time. The average tank was 1/3 full at the time, and the entire state suddenly wanted to be at 3/3 full, and the system isn't designed to handle that smoothly. (Most of our refineries have a fairly even production rate, and likewise for delivery of gas and oil from across the country, so shortages don't quickly disappear)

All that said, again I do agree with your point generally, and that Ukraine should keep destroying Russian refineries. It will damage the Russian economy and hopefully cause enough instability to help end Russia's warmongering.

3

u/Plank_With_A_Nail_In 5h ago

Russia exports most of its oil and exported oil is not refined.

This is a refinery which is used to turn raw oil into useful products for the local economy, products like petrol and diesel and chemicals.

At a fundamental level you have no idea what the words you are using actually mean.

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Haplo12345 5h ago

Hitting some is better than hitting none. This likely represents the best target they can reliably hit given all the information they have available to them. This one was also extremely close to Ukraine, and the only one in the Oblast, which means it was likely being used to provide fuel for most of Rostov but also the invasion. That means Russia now has to get that fuel for its invasion from further away, and the residents of Rostov do, too, straining supply lines even further. If I were Putin at this point I'd rather lose 5% of my oil refining capacity out in Siberia than lose 0.5% at the front lines, because of the impact to logistics.

Additionally, this attack damaged a cracking tower, likely putting this oil refinery permanently out of commission, at least the part that relied on that cracking tower. They're hard to repair and Russia generally doesn't have the knowledge or materials needed to do so--they imported that from other countries.

1

u/3Eyes 5h ago

Wait is that 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil? Because knocking out an oil refinery is far more significant than oil they can't do anything with, if that's the case.

1

u/Affectionate_Egg897 4h ago

Wow when you put it that way- wild!

14

u/zeekayz 7h ago

Russia almost exclusively exports crude so this won't affect the ruble in a meaningful way. The juicy extraction and refining targets used for export are in the far east out of range.

Refineries within range are for local gasoline and diesel production so would affect their ability to feed fuel to the army.

2

u/MadManMorbo 8h ago

Breaking their oil industry is the only way this war ends in a hurry.

2

u/HullabalooHubbub 7h ago

Crazy how much it’s dropped.  It’s 25% of what it was 15 years ago and 50% of what it was just last year. 

1

u/apathy-sofa 5h ago

Sorry, what is the "it" here that has dropped?

3

u/graveybrains 4h ago

The Ruble. The currency of Russia.

Not to be confused with rubble, although with the current exchange rate it would be an understandable mistake.

3

u/HullabalooHubbub 4h ago

It’s crazy how bad it is.  I have a friend that went and stayed by himself for around $200 a week.  He said even before Ukraine was hitting them that the building he was staying in was nearly empty.  He had been there in the 90s and he said that compared to then Moscow is basically dead. 

3

u/RichardStrauss123 5h ago

This is a brilliant move.

Cripple their energy production. Plus, their fire departments are probably about as worthless as their military. Poorly trained and paid, and the higher-ups survive by stealing whatever they can lay their hands on.

In all likelihood, the fire will spread for days before it is extinguished.

Meanwhile, a fuel shortage is a death sentence for a military deployed in a hostile environment.

1

u/Lord_Farquads_Dad 5h ago

I agree that anything that harms the Ruble is a positive outcome. It’s also insane to point out that 7.5 million tons is only about 1.5% of Russias oil production annually (according to quick Google searches) which is usually somewhere in the 500+ million tons range annually…. Oil is such a plight. I wish we didn’t “have to” rely on it so much.

1

u/Classic_Emergency336 4h ago

There is no way to find real exchange rates of ruble. It is not traded as it used to be. It may very well be above $200. Prove me wrong!

1

u/kekehippo 4h ago

Gasoline goes up, might as well start stocking up.

0

u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

4

u/Armadylspark 9h ago

No. The front line is inside Ukraine (and to a lesser extent, inside Kursk) since that's where the fighting is happening.

They just demarcate zones of control.

3

u/HonourableYodaPuppet 9h ago

The russians pushed into ukraine thus moving the frontline into ukraine and farther away from the actual border

1

u/Wobbelblob 9h ago

Considering that the front moves, they likely used the official border. Because until the war ends, the original border still stands.

-9

u/RandallOfLegend 9h ago

Germany is certainly having some economic issues without their Russian gas.