Germany To Hold Tender To Buy Kazakh Oil

Germany is tendering to purchase crude oil from Kazakhstan for its PCK Schwedt and Leuna refineries to pivot away from Russian oil imports, according to the German economy ministry.

• One shareholder at the PCK Schwedt refinery has completed a contract to purchase supplies from Kazakhstan.
• Talks are now ongoing between Kazakhstan and Russia about how to transport it but supplies could be delayed because of Russian maintenance work, the ministry said.
• Germany’s Schwedt and Leuna refineries have been running at reduced capacity since 1 Jan, when the German government decided to phase out all Russian oil imports.
• The PCK Schwedt refinery is operating at 50-60% of capacity, while reduction levels for the Leuna refinery are unknown.
• In late December, KazTransOil had requested an additional 1.2mn tonnes of Druzbha pipeline capacity for 2023 from Russian oil pipeline operator Transneft to enable Kazakhstan to ship additional oil to Germany.