Germany says it won’t buy Russian oil in 2023

Germany has dismissed reports that it plans to buy Russian oil early next year, saying it will instead import crude oil from Kazakhstan. Earlier, Transneft CEO Nikolai Tokarev said that the operator had received a request from Germany for fuel supplies in the first quarter of 2023.

“Reports that Germany has ordered Russian crude oil are false. Oil producing companies at refineries in the cities of Leun and Schwedt will no longer order Russian crude oil in the new year, ”the press service of the German Ministry of Economics said, the quote leads Bloomberg.

The ministry added that the refinery (refinery) PCK Raffinerie GmbH in Schwedt as of January has “reserved capacity for Kazakh oil in the pipeline system.”

Bloomberg notes that the Leuna and Schwedt refineries have historically been heavily dependent on pipeline imports of Russian oil. Now flows through Europe’s largest oil pipeline, Druzhba, will come from Kazakhstan, although, according to the agency, this agreement has not yet been concluded.

“They (Germany and Poland.— “b”) announced that they would not import oil from Russia from January 1, but we received requests from Polish consumers: provide us with 3 million tons for the next year and 360 thousand tons for December. Germany has already sent a request for the first quarter (next year.— “b”),” Mr. Tokarev said on Rossiya 24 (quote from Bloomberg).

Pipeline oil flows from Russia are not subject to the European Union’s ban on most seaborne imports, which went into effect Dec. 5. Germany and Poland, which receive Russian oil through the northern branch of the Druzhba, have pledged to give it up by December. In early December, the EU imposed an embargo on the transportation of Russian oil to third countries at a price above $60 per barrel. The Russian authorities said they would not export fuel to countries that accepted the ceiling.

Daria Erozbek