© Reuters Polish official: Ready to tackle Russian oil embargo
December 30 Financial Associated Press News (Edited by Xia Junxiong)On Thursday (December 29), Poland’s climate and environment minister Anna Moskwa said the country was ready to tackle Russia’s ban on oil sales to countries that impose price caps. Poland has cut back on imports of Russian crude and secured alternative supplies from producers such as Saudi Arabia.
The Group of Seven (G7), the European Union and Australia agreed this month to limit the price of Russian seaborne oil to $60 a barrel from 5 December. As a countermeasure, Russian President Vladimir Putin this week signed a presidential decree banning the supply of crude and refined products to countries that impose price caps on Russian oil for five months starting February 1 next year.
Major Polish refiner PKN Orlen said Poland had gradually reduced its imports of Russian crude and stopped buying Russian seaborne oil after the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted. Orlen said it already has access to alternative oil supplies through its partnership with Saudi Aramco.
Moskva told a news conference: “We are ready to deal with all types of crude oil, which is to our advantage.” He also revealed that he believes the next EU sanctions package will include more decisions to ban Russian oil.
The European Union has banned the import of Russian oil by sea since December 5, but the Druzhba pipeline has not been sanctioned. Druzhba is a large-scale pipeline system that transports crude oil from Russia to Central and Eastern Europe and is the longest pipeline in the world.
According to the sources, Poland is seeking support from Germany to impose sanctions on the Polish-German section of the Druzhba pipeline at EU level, so that Poland can abandon the deal to buy Russian oil next year without paying A fine.
Poland and Germany have pledged to try to end imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba North pipeline by the end of the year, but Orlen remains bound by a contract with Rosneft (Tatneft).
