Russia's Bashneft protects refineries with anti-drone nets, reports say

(Reuters) -Russian oil and gas company Bashneft has equipped key facilities at its refineries with anti-drone nets, local news agencies cited the head of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan as saying on Friday.

Radiy Khabirov said the company headquartered in Bashkortostan in the Urals mountains was in talks with Russia's defence ministry about boosting the security of its refineries, following a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on such facilities in many parts of Russia.

Ukraine has stepped up the attacks on oil refineries in Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, since the start of the year in an effort to reduce Moscow's military capabilities and sources of revenues.

"The most important thing that was done is that we have secured the main columns with mechanical protection nets, and accordingly, the surveillance system is working," Khabirov said according to the local Bashinform news agency.

"We don't stop there. There are a number of solutions there, which I won't talk about yet. They are classified. But believe me, we worry about this very much," he added.

Russia says the drone attacks amount to terrorism.

Ukraine does not officially confirm or deny it is attacking refineries inside Russia, but says the facilities are legitimate targets helping the Russian war effort at a time when Russian strikes are pounding Ukrainian cities and infrastructure including energy facilities.

A Russian energy ministry official told a parliament meeting last month that there were plans to defend oil and gas facilities with missile systems.

Rustam Minnikhanov, the head of Russia's oil producing Tatarstan Republic, expressed scepticism about deploying air defence system to protect energy infrastructure, saying the weapons were engaged "with other tasks".

Russia has been able to swiftly repair some key oil refineries hit by Ukrainian drones, reducing capacity idled by the attacks to about 10% from almost 14% at the end of March, Reuters calculations showed earlier this week.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Sonali Paul)