What goes on in Poland on the 6th of February.
In January 2023, Poland imported half a million tons of oil from Russia. Germany is counting on Kazakhstan
In January, Poland brought in 500,000 tons of Russian oil through the Druzhba Oil Pipeline. In the first month of the new year, the Germans did not import Russian oil anymore and are looking to buy the fuel from the Kazakhs. In 2023, they are expected to receive from them 1.5 million tons of oil, and in the long term 6-7 million tons per year.
In January 2023, Transneft transported 500,000 tons of oil to Poland via the Druzhba Oil Pipeline. „This morning we completed the schedule of pumping oil to Poland,” said the president of the company Nikolai Tokarev. He added that Germany had refused to cooperate and had not accepted oil from Russia since the beginning of 2023. Back in December, Tokarev said on the Rossiya-24 TV channel that his company had received requests from Poland and Germany to pump oil for the first quarter of 2023, despite the declaration they would cut off supplies from Russia as soon as possible.
According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, Germany and Poland have submitted requests to pump oil through the Druzhba, but did not specify where they will import it. In turn, Transneft notes that only the Ministry of Energy of Russia can make a decision on transit.
Poland asked the Russian Transneft for access to a capacity of 3 million tons of oil in 2023, as reported by the CEO of the company Nikolai Tokarev in December 2022. According to Vedomosti, on January 29, Russian oil supplies to Poland via the Druzhba pipeline reached 490,000 tons. This is almost half of the supply plan in the first quarter of 2023, that is, 990 thousand tons. However, average deliveries to Poland decreased by 20 percent compared to December 2022 and reached 16,900 tons.
The Vedomosti interlocutors stressed that according to the export calendar Germany should receive another 30 thousand tons of oil from Russia through the Druzhba pipeline in the first quarter of 2023, of which 10 thousand tons in January. They claimed that the Germans did not claim even a ton of the Russian fossil fuel in January. However, there are many indications that Germany will start importing oil from Kazakhstan in February. Although earlier there was speculation about their launch in January 2023. According to sources of the Russian daily Vedomosti, in 2023 they are supposed to receive from the Kazakhs 1.5 million tons of oil, and in the following years 6-7 million tons per year. In the first quarter of 2023, 300,000 tons of oil should arrive in Germany.
In 2022, the European Union imposed an embargo on oil supplies from the Russian Federation, which came into force on December 5, 2022. However, the sanctions do not include the Druzhba Oil Pipeline, which constantly transfers the raw material from Russia.
For months now Poland has been promising it would stop buying via the Druzhba. PKN Orlen, which has a contract with the Russians until 2024, is counting on a blockade of the pipeline in order not to pay a penalty for early termination of the contract. In the European Union, talks are underway on a tenth package of sanctions that could stop Russian oil flowing through this pipeline. BiznesAlert.pl was the first to report on the plan of Poland and Germany to introduce EU sanctions on the northern strand of the Druzhba Oil Pipeline.