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PKN Orlen, a Polish oil and gas conglomerate, has announced that they will seek compensation from Russia’s Tatneft after the latter ceased oil deliveries at the end of February, said the company’s CEO.
Daniel Obajtek confirmed to the private radio station Radio Zet on Monday that his company was going to seek compensation.
“Everything is in contracts that I can’t talk about,” Obajtek said. “We’ll certainly seek damages within our claims.”
On February 25, one day after the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia halted oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline to Poland.
PKN Orlen informed the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that they had planned for a situation like this, in which the oil supply was shut off, and that tanker shipments to their refineries would carry on as normal.
The company stated that since they decided not to renew their previous contract with Russia’s oil giant Rosneft in early February, only about 10 per cent of Orlen’s requirements had been fulfilled by Russian oil.
The deliveries were carried out solely by pipeline and were not covered by international sanctions, the company added.
The firm declared that they had ceased procuring oil delivered by sea and finished petroleum products from Russia since the start of the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
Oil deliveries to the company’s refineries are now concentrated in five main regions: the North Sea, West Africa, the Mediterranean, the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico.
In 2015, close to 100 per cent of the oil delivered to Orlen was of Russian origin.
Orlen’s contract with Russian oil provider Tatneft will end in 2024, however, the importation of oil may cease sooner if EU sanctions are imposed.