WARSAW (Reuters) – The chief executive of Polish refiner PKN Orlin (PKN.WA) said on Saturday that Russia had halted oil supplies to Poland through the Druzhba pipeline, adding that the company would exploit alternative sources to fill the gap. .
The interruption in supplies through the pipeline – which was exempted from European Union sanctions imposed on Russia after its all-out invasion of Ukraine – came a day after Poland delivered its first Leopard tanks to Ukraine.
“We are effectively securing supplies. Russia has stopped supplies to Poland, and we are ready for that. Only 10% of crude oil comes from Russia and we will replace it with oil from other sources,” said Daniel Opajtec, CEO of PKN Orlen. wrote on Twitter.
The company said it could supply its refineries entirely by sea and that stopping pipeline supplies would not affect shipments of gasoline and diesel to customers.
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As of February, after a contract with Russia’s Rosneft expired, Orlen was getting oil under a deal with Russia’s Tatneft oil and natural gas company.
Tatneft and Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The supply disruption came after US President Joe Biden visited Warsaw and Kiev this week in a show of support for Ukraine a year after the invasion.
On Friday, the European Union approved the tenth package of sanctions against Russia.
After the invasion of Ukraine and before the European Union imposed an embargo on seaborne supplies from Russia, Orlen stopped buying Russian oil and fuel by sea.
She added that the company’s supply portfolio now includes oil from West Africa, the Mediterranean, the Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico. It also has a supply contract with Saudi Aramco starting in 2022.
Seaborne supplies arrive in Poland via Naftopoort, an oil terminal in Gdansk on the Baltic Sea. It can receive 36 million tons of oil per year topping the quantities that can be processed by Polish refineries and used in part to supply oil to refineries in eastern Germany linked to Druzhba.
“Given Naftoport’s capacity and the fact that we also have other ways to import motor fuels, customers will not feel any impact, while Orlen has been prepared for this for several months,” Matthews Berger, foreign minister in charge of strategic energy infrastructure, told Reuters by phone.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki) Editing by Helen Popper and Frank Jack Daniel
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