A storage tank at the Gomel Transneft oil pumping station, near Mozyr, Belarus, on Jan. 4, 2020.Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters
Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Monday that it had started pumping oil from Kazakhstan to Germany via Poland through the Druzhba pipeline, while halting deliveries to Poland, Russian news agencies reported.
Although the European Union imposed a ban on seaborne oil imports from Russia on Dec. 5, it is still receiving piped volumes, partly to ensure supply to the bloc’s landlocked countries.
Kazakh oil pipeline operator KazTransOil said earlier on Monday it had shipped 20,000 tonnes of crude to Germany via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline.
Landlocked Kazakhstan is heavily reliant on neighbouring Russia to help export its energy, and is not subject to Western sanctions.
TASS news agency cited Transneft as saying paperwork had not been completed for the supply of oil to Poland in the second half of February, and that Polish customers had been cut off.
“(Oil) should have been pumped to Polish refineries in the second half of February,” a spokesperson said. “However, routing orders with confirmed resource and transit payment were not executed.
“In addition, operational changes were made to the schedule, excluding supplies for Polish consumers.”
Polish refiner PKN Orlen said on Saturday that Russia had halted supplies, and that it would plug the gap from other sources. It said on Monday that it had no business or trade relationship with Transneft.
Polish state-owned pipeline operator PERN said on Monday it couldn’t comment on trade relationships between companies that were in charge of buying oil for delivery to Poland.
The Polish government has been criticized by the opposition and activists for allowing the state-controlled refiner to keep buying Russian crude.
Warsaw is a key ally of Kyiv and pledged that Russian supplies would be halted by the end of 2022.
Oil supplies to Slovakia and Czech Republic via the southern arm of the Druzhba pipeline were continuing as normal, operators said.