Polish state energy giant Orlen celebrates ending final oil contract with Russia

Polish state energy giant Orlen says it has finally “freed the region from Russian crude oil” after ending its last contract for supplies from Russia to one of its refineries in the Czech Republic.

“Money from Russian oil will no longer be used against those whom it should not be used against,” declared Orlen’s CEO, Ireneusz Fąfara, today. “People in Ukraine will not die thanks to money from Russian oil.”

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland’s then government and state-owned energy companies sought to end entirely the import of Russian coal, gas and oil.

By March 2023, Orlen – which is Poland’s largest firm – was receiving 100% of the crude oil supplied to its refineries in Poland and neighbouring Lithuania from non-Russian sources.

However, Orlen, which operates in the Czech Republic under the name Unipetrol, continued to receive Russian crude at its Czech refinery in Litvinov via the Druzhba pipeline under a long-term contract. Indeed, the amount of Russian oil being imported by Orlen actually increased in 2023.

Supplies through that pipeline were exempted from the EU’s ban on Russian oil imports because landlocked countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary would have struggled to quickly find alternative sources. Last year, the Czech Republic received around 42% of its oil via Druzhba.

However, the 12-year contract that Orlen signed with Rosneft in 2013 to receive Russian oil via the pipeline expired today and has not been renewed, meaning that the Polish firm now receives no supplies from Russia.

“Thanks to this, the entire region will be free from Russian crude oil,” celebrated Fąfara. “We have closed this chapter and together we are building a secure future for the region.”

“Ending Orlen’s dependence on Russian energy resources was possible primarily thanks to the support of the Polish government and good cooperation with our partners, in particular transmission system operators,” he added. “It is thanks to this that we can import oil and gas from alternative directions.”

Orlen noted that the exemption to the Russian oil ban granted by the EU gave Czech pipeline operator MERO time to increase the transmission capacity of the Transalpine (TAL) pipeline that now brings oil from the Italian port of Trieste to the Czech Republic via Austria and Germany.

In April, the Czech government celebrated the arrival of new supplies via the upgraded TAL pipeline, with Prime Minister Petr Fiala declaring that, “after roughly 60 years, our dependence on Russia [for oil] has ended”, reported Reuters.

Orlen itself has also adapted its refinery in Litvinov – which until now had operated exclusively on supplies from Russia – to process other types of crude oil.

Main image credit: Unipetrol (press materials)