Rosneft's Black Sea oil refinery in Tuapse may stay idle till at least midJune, regardless of being repaired after a May 17 drone attack, due to low profitability, 4 industry sources informed Reuters on Thursday.

The plant is technically ready to resume oil processing after an emergency closed down activated by the Ukrainian drone attack, but will remain idle in the middle of low profitability for exports of refined fuels compared to crude.

It's not successful to refine oil. It's not interesting to ship items. At the moment, it's more effective to export crude, among the sources stated.

Rosneft did not right away reply to a request for remark.

The plant was repaired (after fire), the damage was small, however refining has not been resumed. We hear that Rosneft was seeking rate increases from its (petroleum items) buyers. The plant does not start operations, while negotiations are ongoing, another market source stated.

The export-oriented Tuapse plant produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum gasoil and high-sulphur diesel, generally supplying Turkey, China, Malaysia and Singapore. It supplies nearly no gas and low-sulphur diesel to Russia's domestic market.

Tuapse's only crude distillation system (CDU) was shut down on May 17 after the drone attack, although it was not harmed and might be completely operational, a 3rd source said.

Security issues are an extra reason to keep the plant idle while refinery margins stay weak, a 4th source stated. Attacks are most likely to be less harmful for plants that are offline, that source included.

The Tuapse plant, which has processing capability of 240,000 barrels each day (bpd) of oil, was also struck by a drone in January and resumed work by around completion of April, market sources said.

In 2023 the plant processed 9.322 million metric tons of petroleum, producing 3.306 million lots of gasoil and 3.123 million lots of fuel oil.