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 seek out various suppliers. Poland partnered with Germany on this quest. Nevertheless, so far, 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 for the reason that 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 through the Druzhba pipeline. Because of this, Poland now can’t unlock 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 yr. Sadly, that quantities to only a third of the amount that the nations want.
Germany sanctioned utilizing Russian oil because of the Ukraine warfare
Berlin stopped shopping for Russian commodities in January. This determination 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 through Poland have solely yielded two tankers so far. Two nations began discussing transport non-Russian oil to Schwedt through Polish pipelines (the port of Gdansk and Druzhba) within the early spring of final yr.
