The Russian company Transneft has received requests from Poland and Germany for the supply of oil in 2023, writes Reuters.
From the 5th of December, the European Union stopped buying Russian oil, which is imported by tankers, and a price cap was set for Russian crude oil, however, the sanctions do not apply to the Druzhba oil pipeline. Transneft’s announcement contradicts speculations made in November that Poland wants to abandon the purchase of Russian crude oil. An anonymous source told Reuters that Poland approached Germany to gain support for the idea that EU sanctions should also be extended to oil supplied through the Druzhba pipeline. In that case, Warsaw could cancel the contract to buy oil from Russia and avoid the fine.
Nikolai Tokarev, the head of Transneft, announced on the 20th of December:
«They announced that they would not take oil from Russia from the 1st of January. And now we have received requests from Polish consumers: give us 3 million tonnes next year, and 360,000 tonnes for December, and Germany also has already submitted a request for the first quarter.»
Tokarev, whose company works with 80% of the oil produced in Russia, also stated that different scenarios are being considered. He said that it is already clear that the market situation will not be easy.
Russia is expected to cut its oil output to 490 million tonnes next year as a result of Western sanctions, down from around 530 million tonnes produced this year. Tokarev added that supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies oil through Ukraine to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, will remain unchanged next year due to the exemption from sanctions.
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