Germany’s Schwedt oil refinery reported low earnings, highlighting the difficulties the nation faces. Berlin refused to make use of Russian oil, as an alternative planning to search out various suppliers. Poland partnered with Germany on this quest. Nonetheless, up to now, they’ve been struggling the meet the demand.
Schwedt has historically equipped 90% of the gasoline, gas oil, diesel, and jet gas utilized in Berlin. However the refinery is operating at 50-60% of capability after three months because the German authorities and Warsaw agreed to work collectively. In the meantime, these various provides nonetheless haven’t appeared.
Final month, Russia retaliated in opposition to the 2 European nations’ bilateral efforts. Moscow halted oil flows to Poland, stopping its supply by way of the Druzhba pipeline. Because of this, Poland now can’t release a ample quantity of oil for Schwedt. Furthermore, PKN Orlen, a Polish state-controlled refiner, has to make use of extra capability on the Gdansk oil terminal. In one other case, it received’t be capable to feed its personal Plock refinery.
Consequently, Schwedt can solely have one tanker slot in Gdansk per 30 days. That’s roughly 1 million metric tons of oil per 12 months. Sadly, that quantities to only a third of the quantity that the nations want.
Germany sanctioned utilizing Russian oil as a result of Ukraine conflict
Berlin stopped shopping for Russian commodities in January. This choice was a part of its sanctions in opposition to Russia after the latter invaded Ukraine. Schwedt refinery previously accounted for 233,000 barrels per day. However since January, it has been operating at about 55% capability, producing about 130,000 barrels per day. It additionally relied closely on pipeline provides from the port of Rostock. The latter is in northern Germany.
Sources in Germany and Poland famous that provides by way of Poland have solely yielded two tankers up to now. Two nations began discussing delivery non-Russian oil to Schwedt by way of Polish pipelines (the port of Gdansk and Druzhba) within the early spring of final 12 months.
