Transneft: Russia starts pumping oil from Kazakhstan via Poland to Germany

Russia has started shipping oil from Kazakhstan to Germany via Poland through the Druzhba pipeline. Russian pipeline operator Transneft announced this today, according to Russian news agencies. Deliveries to Poland have been halted, while oil flows to Slovakia and the Czech Republic via the pipeline’s southern branch continue uninterrupted, Reuters reported.

Kazakhstan’s pipeline operator KazTransOil said today that it had sent 20.000 tonnes of oil to Germany via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline. The European Union banned imports of Russian oil by sea from 5 December, but continues to receive it by pipeline – largely to ensure that EU landlocked countries have access to oil. Landlocked Kazakhstan is heavily dependent on neighbouring Russia for exporting energy commodities and is not subject to Western sanctions.

The TASS news agency quoted Transneft as saying that the formalities for oil deliveries to Poland in the second half of February had not been completed. Polish customers were therefore cut off from Russian oil supplies.