Poland set to more than half Russian oil imports this month

Russian crude supplies to Poland via the Druzhba oil pipeline are expected to more than halve this month as the European country winds down dealings with Moscow.

Flows are planned at about 220,000 tons in February — roughly 58,000 barrels a day — down from 500,000 tons in January, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The drop is because Poland’s state-controlled oil refiner PKN Orlen SA decided not to renew a contract with Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC that ended last month. The other contract with Tatneft PJSC is still valid.

While Russia’s pipeline flows are exempt from the European Union’s import ban that came into force on Dec. 5, Poland and Germany pledged they would stop buying from Russia by the end of 2022 in condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Polish officials have been flagging that the nation might need EU sanctions in order to stop imports by pipeline. Requests from Polish consumers were at 3 million tons of crude for this year, Nikolay Tokarev, head of Russia’s oil pipeline operator Transneft PJSC, said at the end of 2022. 

Separately, Orlen told Bloomberg that 90% of the crude it processes in its refineries will now come from suppliers other than Russia.