Polish Orlen intends to demand compensation from Russia for the cessation of oil supplies

The Polish oil refinery PKN Orlen is going to court to claim damages due to the cessation of oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline. This was announced by the CEO of the company Daniel Obaitek, transmits Reuters.

“The Russians have stopped pumping oil to Poland, now we will sue and present our claims,” he said.

Any details of the impending lawsuit, including the amount of potential compensation, Obaitek did not disclose.

On the suspension of oil exports from Russia to Poland Obaitek informed 25 February. According to him, only 10% of the consumed raw materials came from Russia, it will be replaced by oil from other directions. On February 27, a representative of Transneft, Igor Demin, said that the company was supposed to pump oil to Polish refineries in the last ten days of February, but route orders with payment were not issued, so the pumping was stopped.

A Vedomosti source familiar with the procedure for exporting oil through the Druzhba pipeline noted that the Russian shipper did not pay for the transit. Now PKN Orlen has a contract with Tatneft for the supply of 200,000 tons of oil per month, which will end in December 2024. Previously, PKN Orlen reported that it would not renew the contract for the supply of oil with Rosneft, which was valid until January 2023 .

The Druzhba pipeline was built in the 1960s. for the delivery of oil from the USSR to the countries of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe. It starts in the Samara region and passes through Bryansk, and then splits into two branches: northern and southern. The northern branch passes through Belarus to Poland, Germany and the Baltic countries, the southern branch passes through the territory of Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.