The Russian company Transneft was supposed to supply Polish refineries with Russian oil at the end of February, but the orders have not been placed or paid for and, therefore, deliveries to Poland have been excluded from the approved export program by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
On Saturday (February 25), Polish multinational oil refiner and gasoline retailer PKN Orlen said it had not received oil deliveries from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline.
The company’s chairman, Daniel Obajtek, remarked that Poland was “well prepared” for such a scenario.“Only 10% of our oil comes from Russia, and we will replace it with oil from other sources,” he tweeted.
He also pointed out that reducing the volume of Russian oil was part of the company’s diversification strategy over the past few years. Therefore, Orlen believes that the suspension of new deliveries by Moscow will not have an impact on the supply of petroleum products, in particular gasoline and diesel, on the Polish market.
The company said it gave up buying Russian oil transported by sea shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, well before the introduction of the European embargo.
However, according to Michał Kozak, an analyst at Trigon DM, PKN Orlen will lose 200,000,000 zlotys (€42,421,000) due to the interruption of oil delivery by Russia.
While in 2015 Orlen bought oil almost exclusively from Russia, the refiner now mainly sources oil from the North Sea, West Africa, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico.
Meanwhile, oil delivery through the Druzhba pipeline to Orlen refineries in the Czech Republic has not been interrupted, according to Business Insider .
In the Czech Republic, the diversification of oil suppliers is not so easy, therefore, a rapid interruption in deliveries could drop the processing of oil to 50-60%, Kozak told the media.
An alternative would be to extend the Transalpine Pipeline (TAL), which currently connects Italy to Germany via Austria, which would allow the Czech Republic to import oil from the Adriatic. However, this investment will take a long time, the expert said.
Source : Euractive