Page 8 - FSUOGM Week 01 2023

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Kazakhstan seeks to supply

Germany with oil via Druzhba

GERMANY KAZAKHSTAN is seeking to pump oil to Ger- company’s other interests in the country under
many via the Druzhba pipeline system, helping state trusteeship in September. Schwedt is only
Berlin ended its Russian the latter replace lost Russian volumes. Germany’s fourth-largest refinery, but it is seen
supply at the start of Germany has followed through on a pledge as strategically valuable, as it covers around 90%
the year. to halt Russian oil imports on January 1, even of the fuel needs of the capital Berlin. The plant
though the EU embargo on crude supplies from has traditionally drawn all its crude from the
the country, imposed in December, only extends Druzhba pipeline.
to seaborne deliveries and not those via pipeline. In addition to reaching out to Kazakhstan for
Prior to the war in Ukraine, Russia supplied 35% crude, Germany also struck an agreement with
of Germany’s oil needs, although the percentage Poland in December to supply enough oil to
had dropped to only 12% by May last year. keep the Schwedt refinery running at 70% capac-
Russian oil pipeline operator Transneft ity. This oil would be delivered via Polish ports,
reported on December 30 that Kazakhstan’s giving Germany access to an array of alternative
KazTransOil had requested to book 1.2mn sources of supply.
tonnes of capacity at Druzhba in 2023, equiv- Transneft did not comment on whether it
alent to 24,000 barrels per day (bpd). It is would approve Kazakhstan’s request to send oil
expected that this supply will replace volumes to Germany via Druzhba. Sources told Reuters
formerly provided by Russia to the Schwedt oil in late December that the oil would be sourced
refinery. from the Karachaganak field in West Kazakh-
The Schwedt refinery was previously owned stan. It would then flow through southern Rus-
by Rosneft, but Germany’s government in sia and be pumped into the Druzhba system for
September placed the plant and the Russian onward delivery to Europe. ™

Romania’s Romgaz signs contract on

gas imports from Azerbaijan

AZERBAIJAN ROMANIA’S state-controlled natural gas com- will be sourced in Azerbaijan or are of Russian
pany Romgaz and Azeri company Socar Trad- origin purchased in Turkey and delivered for-
Initiating supply will ing, a subsidiary of the State Oil Company of the ward to Europe.
require the construction Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), signed the Azerbaijan is a relatively new supplier of nat-
of new infrastructure. first individual contract for gas deliveries from ural gas to Europe, seen as an alternative to Rus-
Azerbaijan to Romania on December 16, 2022, sian gas. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said that
Romgaz announced in a note to investors. his country’s gas exports to Europe were set to
Romgaz may secure up to 300mn cubic rise to “at least” 11.6bn cubic metres (bcm) next
meters of natural gas from SOCAR between Jan- year from an estimated 11.3 bcm this year, the
uary 1 and April 1, 2023 under the agreement Interfax news agency reported.
announced, with daily deliveries of up to 4.2mn The individual contract allows for sched-
cubic metres, according to sources close to dis- uled gas deliveries starting with January 1, 2023,
cussion quoted by the British publication ICIS. through the Southern Corridor, by using trans-
The volumes will be delivered from Turkey to mission capacities of the TAP and IGB pipelines
the Greek virtual trading point (VTP) to be fur- and of the Bulgarian and Romanian transmis-
ther shipped to Bulgaria via the Interconnector sion systems. The contract is based on the Gen-
Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) and reversed into Roma- eral Agreement recently concluded between the
nia at the Negru Voda 1-Kardam interconnec- two companies, with unlimited terms. The par-
tion point on the Trans-Balkan corridor. ties plan to continue their cooperation relation-
It is unclear whether the physical molecules ship and enhance the mechanisms for natural

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 01 04•January 04•2022