Russia's Refinery Runs Up in May

Russian oil refinery runs in May rose by 6.1 percent month on month or 329,911 barrels per day (bpd) following seasonal maintenance, data from the Energy Ministry and Reuters showed.

Refineries processed 5.76 million barrels of crude oil per day in May versus 5.43 million in April.

Rosneft's Novokuibyshevsk and Ryazan refineries increased oil processing by 126.4 percent and 48.4 percent, respectively, in May after major planned seasonal maintenance.

Two other Rosneft refineries - Kuibyshev and Achinsk - started thorough repair work on crude distillation units in May, reducing their capacity by 79.7 percent and 67.8 percent, respectively.

Industry sources have said that it may take six months to restart output at Achinsk after a deadly fire this month.

Tuapse refinery, also owned by Rosneft, in May expanded its oil processing by some 20 percent to a record high 800,300 tonnes from 650,300 tonnes in previous month thanks in part to a new pipeline, according to Energy Ministry data and industry sources.

Fuel oil production there rose by 32.5 percent to 399,000 tonnes in May.

Last year Rosneft launched a new crude distillation unit (CDU-12) at its Tuapse refinery that should almost triple capacity at the plant to 240,000 bpd, but the production increase has been held up by infrastructure constraints.

The bulk of its oil products refinery is shipped to Mediterranean markets.

Gazprom Dobycha Astrakhan restarted its only crude distillation unit after a major overhaul, so runs totalled 171,400 tonnes in May after zero in April.

Private Khabarovsk refinery and Salavat refinery, owned by Gazprom, also restored their crude oil processing after seasonal maintenance. Their May refinery runs rose by 33.6 percent and 37.1 percent, respectively.

Gasoline production at Russian refineries rose 6.2 percent in May to 100,323 tonnes per day, Reuters calculations showed.

Gasoil production was up 3.4 percent at 211,006 tonnes per day.

Fuel oil output increased 1.4 percent in May to 213,087 tonnes per day, while jet kerosene production rose by 10.2 percent to 1.0 million tonnes.

Year on year, May refinery runs were up 7.0 percent, or 376,975 bpd.

Overall gasoline output rose by 1.4 percent compared with May 2013.

Gasoil and fuel oil production increased by 10.4 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively, while production of jet kerosene was up 7.7 percent year to year.

(Reporting by Natalia Chumakova; editing by Jason Neely)