Background: Last week, the media reported on rolling blackouts in Russia. In Dagestan, for example, local authorities stressed that modernization of power networks was necessary, since problems had not been solved for 30 years. However, as of today, there are no funds to implement this.
Last week, the wholesale price of petrol in Russia has not only broken records numerous times, but also reached a historic high.
And this week, a number of Russian regions announced the absence of gasoline and diesel fuel at gas stations.
[If the Russian people had money and there were things to buy we'd be doing great! Obviously, the people have no money and there's nothing available to actually buy, but still...]
Russia does have refinement capacity which, at least in the broadest terms, should be sufficient to cover its own usage. That assumes that they're exporting very little refined oil though, and also doesn't cover how much of that refining and consumption is specifically fuel for vehicles.
[If the Russian people had money and there were things to buy we'd be doing great! Obviously, the people have no money and there's nothing available to actually buy, but still...]
How does russia, of all places, have a petrol shortage?
I'm only guessing here, but it could be that they're exporting absolutely as much as possible to try to make up for sanction-induced shortfalls
I bet they're also unable to refine it. The black goo you pump out of the ground isn't useful without a lot of sophisticated processing.
Russia does have refinement capacity which, at least in the broadest terms, should be sufficient to cover its own usage. That assumes that they're exporting very little refined oil though, and also doesn't cover how much of that refining and consumption is specifically fuel for vehicles.
Does that account for oil infrastructure damaged by Ukrainian strikes? I know at least one refinery was hit, and pipelines have been sabotaged.
It doesn't, no. I've got no special expertise on the matter and wouldn't know what to look for to account for it