Until the turn of the year, the refinery was almost exclusively supplied with oil from Russia via the “Druzhba” pipeline.
(Photo: dpa)
The Kazakh oil export company Kazmunaigaz is supplying the PCK refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg, with a first delivery of oil. The buyer of the oil is Rosneft Germany, the subsidiary of the Russian oil company Rosneft, which is under trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency.
“We were awarded the contract,” said Burkhard Woelki, spokesman for Rosneft Germany, to the Handelsblatt. The contract will initially be 20,000 tons. “The pumping of the oil will start immediately,” Woelki added early on Friday afternoon.
This should initially be a test delivery. If the transport takes place without any technical problems, according to Woelki, there is the possibility of buying further quantities in Kazakhstan.
The supply of the refinery in Schwedt is a political issue of the first order. The refinery is by far the most important supplier of petrol, diesel, heating oil and kerosene for the greater Berlin/Brandenburg area and also for parts of western Poland.
Until the turn of the year, the refinery was almost exclusively supplied with oil from Russia via the “Druzhba” (“Friendship”) pipeline. However, the federal government had decided that Germany would no longer be allowed to purchase pipeline oil from Russia from January 1, 2023. Since then, the pipeline’s oil supply has stood on shaky ground.
With replacement deliveries via an oil pipeline leading from Rostock to Schwedt, the required capacity utilization of the refinery can only be provisionally secured. Delivery via the Polish port of Gdansk has not yet been a viable alternative. Deliveries from Kazakhstan could now help to ensure the necessary utilization of the refinery.
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