MOSCOW, May 17 (Reuters) - A fire triggered by a

Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Tuapse oil refinery on the

Black Sea coast has forced an emergency shut down of the

refinery, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The fire at the refinery, owned by Rosneft, was

extinguished, Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported on

Friday.

Russian air defenсes and the Black Sea Fleet destroyed 102

Ukrainian drones and six uncrewed boats during the night,

Russia's defence ministry said.

Rosneft did not comment on the attack.

According to one source, the drones hit the liquefied

petroleum gas (LPG) production unit at Tuapse while the crude

distillation unit (CDU) remained undamaged.

"There was no black smoke during the fire. That means it was

just the gas (LPG) burning", a source said.

He added, that from technical point of view, there is an

option to bypass the LPG unit and restart the refinery

relatively soon.

Tuapse refinery halted oil processing and output following a

fire after drone attack on Jan. 25 and remained shut for about 3

months resuming operations late in April.

The Tuapse plant's annual capacity is 12 million metric tons

(240,000 barrels per day). It produces naphtha, fuel oil, vacuum

gasoil and high-sulphur diesel, and supplies fuel mainly to

Turkey, China, Malaysia and Singapore.

In 2023, the plant processed 9.378 million tons of crude

oil, producing 3.306 million tons of gasoil and 3.123 million

tons of fuel oil.