Russia to halt Kazakh oil supplies to Germany via Druzhba

Russia will halt oil supplies from Kazakhstan to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline from 1 May. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced this afternoon. Earlier today, Germany’s energy ministry said it had been informed that the PCK refinery in Schwedt, in the country’s northeast, should no longer receive any oil from Kazakhstan from May because Russia plans to halt deliveries of the oil via the Druzhba pipeline.

Novak said that oil supplies from Kazakhstan that were due to reach Germany via the Druzhba pipeline would be redirected to other routes from 1 May. He added that the change had been agreed with Kazakhstan and was due to “technical constraints”. “The Germans gave up Russian oil, so they’re doing fine,” the deputy prime minister said, according to Reuters.

Kazakh Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov said earlier in the morning that Russia had informally informed Kazakhstan that it lacked the capacity to transport Kazakh oil to Germany. He added that the problem was likely caused by Ukrainian drone attacks. “Once the technical problems are resolved, the transit of Kazakh oil will resume,” he said.

Germany’s energy ministry said production of oil products at the PCK refinery should not be affected. PCK is one of Germany’s largest refineries and also supplies Berlin. The ministry manages the refinery under trusteeship and received the information about the halted deliveries from the facility’s majority owner, Rosneft Deutschland.

“Rosneft Deutschland is currently assessing the impact and how to adapt to any new situation,” the ministry said in a statement.

The company, which the government took under its administration in 2022, is aware of its responsibilities to the region and will meet its obligations, according to the ministry. At the same time, the government will use the available options to ensure security of supply in Germany. Moreover, the ministry said, the absence of oil supplies from Kazakhstan will ultimately not threaten the security of oil product supplies in Germany.

Last year, Kazakh oil exports to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline reached 2.146 million tonnes, or around 43,000 barrels a day. This was a 44 percent increase on the previous year. Germany is one of Europe’s largest oil consumers, using around two million barrels a day, most of which it imports.

Supplies from Kazakhstan to Germany pass through the northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Poland. They have been repeatedly disrupted in the past by Ukrainian drone attacks on the pipeline inside Russian territory, Reuters reports. The Druzhba pipeline begins in Russia on the eastern bank of the Volga River and splits into two branches in Belarus: the northern branch runs to Poland and Germany, while the southern branch passes through Ukraine to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.