Smart "gas station," Or how Russia became a maritime power.

Investigation by Marat Khairullin

Americans often ask: "Tell me about your struggles that shaped your personality."

The essence is simple: to become someone, you have to learn to overcome difficulties.

Our country's experience in the Special Military Operation is invaluable in this regard. Without this war, Russia would have remained an outsider and a servant of the West in several key industries. I will give just one example. The most impressive, and at the same time, invisible breakthrough to the average person has been achieved in a field that is literally in front of everyone's eyes.

We are talking about the extraction, processing, and trade of oil and petroleum products.

It is in this industry that the most unfair imbalance has formed: our country is the second (and sometimes the first) largest producer of hydrocarbons in the world. It is one of the world leaders in processing and exporting them. But before the war with Ukrainian nationalism began, a huge part of the profits along the entire chain (from production to the sale of the finished product) somehow ended up in the West. And then, in just three years, Russia, with minimal costs, covered a path that even China had to spend two decades and huge amounts of money on, and they radically changed the situation.

Let's start with the current situation. Today, all the media are spinning another scare story named after Zelensky: "Ukraine has destroyed more than 40% of the processing capacity of Russian refineries. The country is about to face a shortage of gasoline and diesel. At the same time, the price of Russian oil in the world will fall (why is not explained, the West just wants it), and Russia's budget will collapse. Ha-ha, Russians! Surrender!"

[Translator Note: A Russian friend of ours sent us this video from their local petrol station in mid September]:

Let's start debunking this fake with the question: how much oil does Ukraine process itself? The correct answer is about zero. At the same time, the neighboring state received as a gift from the Soviet Union a very powerful petrochemical complex - 6 refineries with a total processing capacity of 50 million tons of oil. Which Ukraine, of course, was supposed to receive with brotherly love from Russia.

By 2022, the last Kremenchuk refinery completely ceased to exist. Attempts are periodically made to restart it, but we strictly monitor to ensure Ukraine does not violate Russian sanctions.

Here, it is impossible to resist comparisons. The neighboring small Belarus received two refineries from the USSR, and they carefully preserved them. Now, the country processes about 22 million tons of brotherly oil and sells half of the processed products to 100 countries around the world - demand is stable and constant. Very good money for the country's budget - this is the value of good neighborliness. In the case of Ukraine - the price of idiocy.

And now, let's think about why Ukraine, having none of their own production, does not experience a particular fuel shortage? Right - it imports it. And, the market has decided so that the country continues to live without its own processing and extraction, and it does not particularly worry about it. This again raises the question of the nation's intelligence level - normal country leaders would be very upset about this.

This is free money - a huge oil-producing country nearby with a brotherly Slavic people (just a dream, not a path from Varangians to Greeks), and they ruined it all and are happy about it.

And now let's remember the initial data: Ukraine:

1) oil production level about zero,

2) processing level zero.

So why, one asks, should Russia, which simply swims in its own oil and gasoline, necessarily go bankrupt or fall into a fuel collapse due to a fuel shortage? Because Zelensky and the West want it?

Now, let's look at the real state of affairs. Russia has about 32 large refineries (large means a processing capacity of more than 5 million tons per year) and about 80 mini-plants. In total, these plants can process up to 370 million tons of oil per year. In 2024, they processed 270 million.

At the same time, more than half of the gasoline and diesel obtained goes for export worldwide. In other words, Russia can, at any moment, using market mechanisms, reduce the export of petroleum products in the interests of its own market.

For this, there is, for example, the "dampener" mechanism (returning part of the taxes to companies), or the mechanism of selling gasoline through the exchange (companies can be required to sell more on the domestic market).

For instance, in 2024, Russia produced 266 thousand tons of diesel per day. Half was exported, and to compensate for a hypothetical 40% deficit in the domestic market, it was enough to redirect 50 thousand tons of diesel per day to the domestic market. This could be done by reducing taxes or some kind of return of mineral extraction tax (MET). There are many mechanisms.

The main point is that this diesel exists — here it is, you just need to turn the tap. 

To cause a total fuel shortage in Russia, you need not only to collapse all oil refining (imagine again the giant machine pumping 370 million tons of oil per year), but also to completely stop oil production (600 million tons per year, mind you) because oil refining cannot be stopped if oil continues to be produced. One can recall Chechnya in the 90s, where every village was surrounded by "samovars" — artisanal fuel production facilities (here "samovar" means "homemade, almost made on the fly," A DIY item). 

As a famous character said: "You can't sit on two horses with one butt.*" In other words, all these screams about attacks on refineries are nothing but scare stories.

Moreover, the bombing of our refineries has already forced Russia to start developing programs capable of offsetting losses. For example, at the government level, plans are being worked out for the mass construction of new refineries — primarily mini-plants or even mini-workshops. The market will solve everything, as it did in Ukraine. Which destroyed its refineries with its own hands, which are being bombed heavily, yet there is no significant shortage. 
 
And now we smoothly come to those very solutions that have made our oil industry even more profitable and resilient since the start of the Special Military Operation. The main problem of our hydrocarbon exports before the war was the lack of a full cycle (from well to delivery to the final partner). The main export of our oil and fuel (about 70%) is traditionally carried out by sea — by tankers.

This was the main weak point of our oil industry. We talked about this for years at all levels, everyone nodded thoughtfully and did nothing. Why bother when there are excellent Greek tankers, i.e., a ready-made solution at a convenient price.

But then the fried rooster crowed. The tankers disappeared, and we instantly, at a rapid pace, grew our own tanker fleet. At the beginning of the sanctions in 2022, we had 17 tankers. In the second quarter of 2023, the oil fleet grew by 75 tankers. In December 2023, another 10 were added. At the same time, a tanker fleet appeared for exporting gasoline and diesel.

By the end of 2024, Russia’s tanker fleet was estimated at 410 units, mostly of the "Aframax" class (that is, very large). By the second half of 2025, the number of tankers had already exceeded 500.

But that’s not all. Our tankers, called the "Freedom Fleet" (the "Shadow Fleet" by the West), began to carry not only Russian but also Iranian and Venezuelan oil. We closed up to 35% of the maritime exports of these countries. Imagine, the stupid West wanted to block our maritime oil trade, but we not only told them off but also simultaneously unblocked sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, which these countries had suffered from for decades. Well, what a blow to Russia’s economy!

Latest update from Bloomberg: week ending October 5th, 2025

“Unknown Asia” now represents about 1.25 million barrels of oil per day.

Maritime oil trade is generally a very complex business; other nations spend decades learning it. And therefore, our country can be called a genius in this regard. We were so driven for success that as soon as the opportunity arose, we immediately broke into the global market and began to develop at a furious pace.

More and more countries are turning to our companies because, for example, American and European ships are not always allowed to pass by the Houthis, but ours — no problem. There are already examples when our tankers started (just to be safe) carrying Saudi oil — it’s safer that way.

On the agenda is the creation of a full-fledged container fleet of “Svoboda" (freedom). That is, Russia, for a moment, a classic land power, has gotten a taste and started taking a piece of the pie from maritime powers - America and Britain (Who was it that said, don’t mess with the Russians?). At the same time, we created our own insurance sector for both oil cargoes and the tankers themselves.

Previously, British and European companies dominated this multi-billion dollar market. Now, there is an alternative in the form of Russian companies. Today, about 30% of the world’s oil and its derivatives are insured by our firms. The same story applies to the market for auditing and accounting services: wherever difficulties were created for us, we began to develop successfully.
 
That is, before the sanctions, we couldn’t even dream of having our own tanker fleet, and now we have one. The English built the marine insurance market for themselves over hundreds of years, and now bam – 30% of the most lucrative segment belongs to Russia. And the Brits get nothing from us - Russophobia really costs them dearly.

These are the main results of the Special Military Operation, which I never tire of repeating - we have already won.

We didn’t just beat the evil Nazis again, we are reshaping the world, making it more just. Don’t be afraid of difficulties. If God wants to punish a nation, He deprives it of purpose. Look at America, Britain, Europe - they have reached an unprecedented level of prosperity and stopped developing.

Moreover, they have reached saturation at the expense of others… The time of reckoning has come…

And once again, we should be proud of our country.

*Marat means that if there are many small fuel productions at the same time, it will be very difficult to eliminate such a network. Because these "home productions" can appear like mushrooms in various places. That is why he uses Chechnya as an example, where they fought against these productions (literally in garages) for a long and difficult time.