The Almi Explorer tanker has arrived at the port in Gdańsk, carrying a cargo of nearly 100,000 tonnes of WTI crude oil to be processed at the PKN ORLEN refinery in Płock. It is the first oil cargo imported to Poland from the United States after it lifted the oil export ban imposed many years ago.
The transaction is consistent with PKN ORLEN’s strategy aimed at optimising the procurement process and supplementing long-term contracts with spot contracts concluded on favourable terms. The United States is another addition to the list of countries from which oil is imported for processing at ORLEN refineries. In addition to oil purchased under long-term contracts with Rosneft Oil Company, Tatneft Europe AG and Saudi Arabian Oil Company, the ORLEN Group refineries have processed oil from Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Nigeria and Norway.
The tanker left the port of Houston on October 8th and reached Poland after three weeks. After unloading at the Naftoport terminal in Gdańsk, the oil will be transferred by pipeline to the Płock refinery. WTI (West Texas Intermediate) oil is a light sweet crude (with relatively low density and low sulfur content) produced in the Southwestern US. Such properties make it possible to yield large volumes of petrol and diesel oil in the distillation process.
The ban on oil exports 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.