Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant Catches Fire After Drone Attack

3 February, 2025 Fire at the Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant. Photo: Astra Strike drones attacked a gas processing plant near the city of Astrakhan.

This was reported by the Astra news resource. The attack on the fuel and energy facility took place on the night of February 2 to 3, 2025, and a fire broke out on the plant's premises as a result of a drone explosion. According to the newspaper, citing witnesses, all personnel were evacuated after the plant was hit.

The facility itself belongs to Gazprom. The information about the success of the attack was also confirmed by the governor of the Astrakhan region, Igor Babushkin, who wrote about it on his Telegram channel and noted that the fire had been caused by the crash of one of the drones.

"Last night, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attempted to attack facilities located in the region, including energy infrastructure. Electronic warfare and air defense systems worked as usual. One of the UAVs crashed and started a fire.

There were no casualties," Babushkin wrote.

The Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant. Photo: Google Maps

The Astrakhan Gas Processing Plant is one of the largest gas chemical complexes in Russia, located at the Astrakhan gas condensate field. In 2022, the plant processed 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 3.418 million tons of unstable gas condensate.

The plant began operations in 1985, gradually expanding in 1986 and 1997. The company employs about 5,600 people, making it the largest in the Astrakhan region. The enterprise is located at coordinates 46.77502651831776, 48.11057898699301 at a distance of 395 km from the eastern border of Ukraine, which makes it vulnerable to a significant number of Ukrainian attack drones. It should be noted that this is the first attack on the company.

Prior to this, attack drones in the Astrakhan region attacked a missile range in July 2024. Back then, attack drones hit the installation and testing building of the test site in the Akhtubinsky district. Earlier, Militarnyi reported that on January 31, 2025, drones had attacked an oil refinery in Volgograd, Russia, having caused a fire.

According to local residents, the drone attack took place around four in the morning local time.

Shortly before that, an air alert was declared in Volgograd region due to the threat of a drone attack.