Germany no longer buys Russian pipeline oil, but the Schwedt refinery needs a replacement. It comes from other countries, but now again via the same pipeline. Russia not only collects money for this, but also receives a new means of leverage. The tap is already being turned off in Poland.
After lengthy negotiations, oil is being pumped from Kazakhstan to Germany for the first time since the oil embargo against Russia. The Kazakh pipeline operator KazTransOil and the Russian company Transneft confirmed that oil will flow to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline. Kazakhstan is not affected by the EU oil embargo. However, the oil has to be transported several thousand kilometers across Russian territory. Russia collects transit fees for this.
The Federal Ministry of Economics confirmed that the supply contracts existed. “We have to watch how Russia is acting to pass through the Druzhba,” said a spokeswoman. A reliable statement about Russia’s actions is unfortunately difficult to predict, as the gas supply stop last year showed.
At the same time, according to the Russian state news agency TASS, Transneft announced that deliveries to Poland would be stopped. The country had received oil quantities directly from Russia via pipeline, which caused criticism in the EU and also from the Polish opposition. Poland is one of Russia’s fiercest opponents after the invasion of Ukraine. Transneft argued that transit fees had not been paid and that the necessary documents were missing. The largest Polish oil supplier Orlen said it would cover the missing amounts from other sources.
The Kazakh oil is to supply the East German refinery Schwedt, which before the war was supplied almost exclusively via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia. Schwedt supplies almost all of Berlin and Brandenburg with petrol, kerosene, diesel and heating oil. After the embargo, the refinery gets about half of its capacity from the world markets via the port of Rostock. Additional quantities are supposed to come via the Polish port of Gdansk, but there are still no permanent commitments from the Polish side.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the situation is currently relaxed because there are enough refinery products available and prices are tending to fall. In addition, Schwedt will be serviced in April and May, so that the refinery can hardly be operated at more than half capacity during this period anyway.
According to insiders, Kazakhstan will deliver around 100,000 tons of oil to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline in March, apparently via another contract. Kazakhstan’s oil company Kazmunaigaz will deliver the quantities via the Russian pipeline system and the operator Transneft. The customer is Rosneft Germany, which is currently under state trusteeship. However, the Russian group still holds a good 54 percent of the shares in Schwedt.