For decades, the Druzhba pipeline has been supplying Poland and Germany with oil from Russia. As a result of the Ukraine war, both countries have declared that they will voluntarily stop making deliveries in the coming year. The head of the Russian state-owned company Transneft says otherwise.
According to information from Moscow, Germany and Poland have also ordered oil from Russia for the period after the turn of the year. “They said they will stop taking oil from Russia from January 1. But we received orders from Polish consumers: give us 3 million tons next year and 360,000 tons for December,” said the head of the state-owned pipeline company Transneft, Nikolai Tokariev, on Russian TV.
Germany has already placed an order for the first quarter. So far, there has been no confirmation from Berlin and Warsaw of Tokarjew’s claims. From 1963 the Soviet Union and later Russia supplied crude oil via the “Druzhba” pipeline.
An embargo on Russian oil delivered by sea has been in effect in the EU since the beginning of December because of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. However, Germany and Poland have declared that they also want to voluntarily forego Russian pipeline oil. This ban should apply from January 1st.
