“Transneft” stopped transporting oil to Poland due to lack of payment, the representative of the Russian company Igor Demin told TASS.
Transneft transports oil abroad according to an export plan approved by the Russian Ministry of Energy and road orders placed by shippers. According to the schedule, pumping to Polish refineries was to take place in the last ten days of February. However, itinerary orders with a confirmed source and payment for the pass were not placed. In addition, operational changes were made to the program, excluding deliveries to Polish consumers. In this context, oil is not transported by Transneft towards Poland,
said.
On February 25, Daniel Obaitek, head of Polish oil refinery Orlen, wrote on Twitter that the Polish side had stopped buying Russian oil.
“We are fully prepared [к прекращению поставок]. Only 10 percent of the raw materials came from Russia, and we will replace it with oil from other aspects,” he wrote.
He promised to give details about the new oil suppliers at a special conference on February 28.
“Ridiculous Theatre”
On December 2, 2022, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Aleksandr Novak commented on the information that Poland requests Russian oil supply through the Druzhba pipeline next year. According to the official, what Warsaw is doing can be described as “theatrical of the absurd”. Later, he neither confirmed nor denied the information about Poland’s application, which was quoted by Kommersant on 16 November, based on a Russian source. Later this information was confirmed in Poland. The newspaper wrote that Orlen applied to Transneft for the passage of 3 million tons of Russian oil through the northern branch of Druzhba in 2023. Transneft Deputy Head Sergey Andronov later confirmed the existence of the application, but did not specify its volume. Orlen also confirmed the information, but clarified that this is “a technical notice of request in the event that contracts are still binding for PKN Orlen”.
Since March 2022 Orlen has refused spot supply, but under long-term contracts with Tatneft (2.4 million tons/year until 2024) and Rosneft (3.6 million tons/year until January-February 2023). continued to purchase raw materials. Under the Rosneft contract, approximately 0.6 million tons can be delivered to Poland in 2 months, respectively, while together with Tatneft, approximately 3 million tons are obtained annually. By December 2022, Orlen had reduced its dependence on Russian oil to 30% and replaced it with Saudi and Norwegian oil.
Refusal of oil from the Russian Federation
Bloomberg wrote on February 3 that Warsaw plans to reduce supply from Russia via Druzhba from 500,000 tons in January to 220,000 tons in February. Orlen later told the agency that he would purchase 90% of the oil from alternative Russian suppliers, but did not specify the specific companies and the method of delivery of the raw materials.
In December, the EU placed an embargo on offshore shipments of Russian oil that has flown to Europe through the Druzhba pipeline since then. The northern branch of the pipeline goes to Germany via Poland. Also on February 16, the European Commission said that oil imports from Russia to the EU have decreased by 90% overall.
In November 2022, Bloomberg wrote that Poland insisted on imposing sanctions on the northern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline (via Belarus) in order to obtain legal grounds for termination of contracts and avoid penalties by Russian suppliers.
The only EU countries that can continue to buy Russian oil – Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – get their raw materials from the southern branch of the Druzhba.
Source: Gazeta
Ben Stock is a business analyst and writer for “Social Bites”. He offers insightful articles on the latest business news and developments, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the business world.