Poland’s second largest oil refiner, Grupa LOTOS, has received on the 09th of November 2017, a crude oil shipment of 600,000 barrels of domestic sweet crude, equivalent to around 80,000 tonnes. The tanker “St. Hellen” left the Freeport of Texas on October 19th and reached the port in Gdańsk, Poland, after three weeks. It is the first delivery of crude oil from the United States to Grupa LOTOS, a CEEP member.
This marks the beginning of deliveries from the U.S. to countries aiming to lower dependence on the current main supplier, Russia. As part of its supply diversification, around 25% of the oil Grupa LOTOS refines comes from sources other than Russia. LOTOS has been importing crude from the North Sea, Middle East and Nigeria. Moreover, the first delivery of crude oil from Canada arrived in September, for the 40-year anniversary of the company.
The first oil cargo imported to Poland from the United States has been delivered on 31st of October to PKN ORLEN’s refinery in Plock, carrying a shipment of nearly 100,000 tonnes of WTI crude oil.
The ban on oil export was introduced by the US government in the wake of the oil crisis of the 1970s and in response to the embargo imposed by the OPEC countries on exports of crude to countries of the West, and lifted in 2015 due to, among other factors, a surge in oil reserves driven by production from previously inaccessible sources, such as shale rock.
Source: Grupa LOTOS and PKN ORLEN