"Rosneft has managed to restart some refineries within weeks of an attack, only to see them struck again as repairs are completed or nearing completion. The need to repeatedly repair damaged equipment is straining operations and causing costs to pile up to levels that Rosneft officials have privately warned cannot be sustained long-term, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named to discuss sensitive information. Some plants have deliberately slowed repairs as a result, stretching work that should take days into weeks, the people said. Efforts to protect the facilities with shipping containers, nets and steel cables have proved ineffective against swarms of drones, according to company plans reviewed by Bloomberg. The damage is particularly difficult to repair when strikes hit complex secondary units such as catalytic crackers, reformers and hydrocrackers, whose parts would previously have been sourced from the West. Sanctions are compounding the problems by restricting access to replacement equipment, forcing Rosneft to rely on Russian-made copies and Chinese imports that can take months to obtain and are not always compatible with existing machinery, people familiar with the matter said. More broadly, the International Energy Agency said drone strikes on Russian refineries are having a “cumulative negative effect.” In September, the agency cut its outlook for Russian oil processing over the next 18 months to around 4 million barrels a day, roughly 30% below prewar levels." bloomberg.com/news/features/…