Drones strike Orenburg gas plant, halting Karachaganak gas intake

Ukrainian drones struck the Orenburg gas processing plant in southwestern Russia overnight, setting a fire in a workshop, damaging part of the facility and forcing it to stop taking gas from Kazakhstan, regional and national authorities said on Sunday. The governor of Orenburg region, Yevgeny Solntsev, said emergency services were working to extinguish the blaze and that no plant employees were injured.

The facility, operated by Gazprom and described by officials as the world’s largest gas processing plant, is part of the Orenburg gas chemical complex and has an annual processing capacity of about 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Russia’s Orenburg field and from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak project, near the shared border. Kazakhstan’s energy ministry said it had been notified of an emergency and that the plant had suspended acceptance of gas from Karachaganak, a move that could affect Kazakh oil production because gas and crude are coproduced at the field.

Russian authorities reported broader drone activity overnight across the Volga region. The Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 45 Ukrainian drones, including strikes repelled over the Samara...