The shortage of automotive fuel in Russia has sharply worsened, causing it to be unavailable at almost every second gas station.

This is reported by The Moscow Times.

Queues and restrictions at gas stations

According to monitoring data, AI-92 gasoline is unavailable at 45% of gas stations, and AI-95 is unavailable at 53%.

The share of gas stations with sales restrictions has reached 11-12%, and queues are recorded at 20-27% of gas stations.

The most critical situation is observed in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, where, after the shutdown of the Kinef oil refinery (refinery), sales were limited to 30 liters per car.

An acute fuel shortage was also recorded in Krasnodar, Novorossiysk, Irkutsk, Perm, Surgut, and a number of other regions.

Causes of shortages and decline in production

The fuel shortages were triggered by a wave of successful attacks on Russian oil refineries. In August, at least 23 refineries were hit , and in September, new attacks shut down the Ryazan, Syzran, and Saratov refineries with a combined capacity of over 32 million tons per year.

Oil refining volumes in the country have fallen to a 20-year low, and current gasoline production covers only two-thirds of domestic demand. According to Rosstat, fuel prices have risen by an average of 21% since the beginning of the year.

Recall that in August 2026, Ukraine launched a record number of strikes on Russian oil refineries – at least 21 attacks.

Russia’s fuel shortage

It was previously reported that Russian oil companies were able to restore less than half of the capacity of oil refineries that were damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes.

Also, gas stations in Russia have begun to be put up for sale en masse due to the fuel crisis, which has affected almost all regions of the country.

In addition, it became known that the Russian authorities are urgently redirecting fuel supplies from Siberia and increasing imports from Belarus, trying to prevent a gasoline shortage in Moscow and the Moscow region.

It was previously reported that the Russian Federation would be forced to import diesel fuel due to massive strikes on oil refineries (refineries), which led to a reduction in domestic production by almost 40%.

As a reminder, the Russian authorities first acknowledged a gasoline shortage in the Russian Federation after Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries, which caused oil refining volumes in Russia to plummet to their lowest levels in more than 20 years. Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/n4023982

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