Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has defended state-owned energy firm Orlen's move to increase shipments of Russian oil this month despite Warsaw’s tough stance on abandoning imports from Moscow, the outlet Notes from Poland reported on Monday.
A Unipetrol oil refinery in the Czech Republic, the country’s sole crude processing plant, which is 100% owned by Poland’s Orlen, will boost imports of Russia’s flagship Urals blend, Reuters reported last week. Prague, which is seeking to secure more oil amid concerns of disruptions in transit via Ukraine, will reportedly buy 430,000 tons in June, up from 400,000 tons purchased in May.
Orlen explained that the landlocked Czech Republic remains reliant on Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Crude deliveries through Druzhba were exempted from the EU embargo on Russian oil imports last year.
“Infrastructural constraints make it impossible to fully cover Czech demand for oil from directions other than Russia,” Orlen said in a statement. “Deliveries [of Russian oil] are necessary to ensure the security of raw materials and fuel in this country.”
Commenting on Orlen’s continued imports of Russian crude, the Polish prime minister defended the energy firm’s policy, noting that “we have access to the sea, [but] the Czech Republic does not,” the Polish Press Agency quoted the official as saying. “They are therefore dependent on oil pipelines…We do not want to prevent the Czechs from being able to drive their cars,” Morawiecki added.
While Poland “adheres strictly and meticulously to all sanctions” it remains by far the EU’s biggest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Russia, despite pledging to stop such imports, the news outlet said.
LPG is a fuel gas containing propane and butane that is used in heating appliances and vehicles. LPG is particularly widely used for powering cars in Poland.
Unlike seaborne oil and petroleum products, Russian LPG is not subject to the EU import ban. It accounts for about 14% of the total Polish fuel market, according to official estimates.
When asked about the increased energy imports from Russia, a policy that runs contrary to Poland’s rhetoric, Morawiecki replied: “While you [the reporter asking the question] want Poles who have LPG-powered cars not to be able to drive them, we do not.”
Last year, Warsaw bought €710.3 million ($771 million) worth of Russian LPG, compared to €417 million ($452 million) purchased by the rest of the EU, the newspaper Rzeczpospolita earlier reported.
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