Oil from Norwegian fields will flow to ORLEN Group refineries
ORLEN Group has secured further oil supplies from Norwegian deposits in the North Sea. The contract, signed with bp, provides for the supply of up to 6 million tons of crude during its one-year term, for ORLEN Group refineries. The first oil tanker will arrive at Naftoport in Gdansk next quarter. The measures taken are a continuation of the diversification of crude supplies carried out by the company over the past five years. Currently, 100 percent of crude oil comes to Poland from directions other than Russia, including North Sea, West Africa, the Mediterranean basin, as well as the Arabian and Mexican Gulf.
“The purchase of crude from Norwegian fields is another example of our successful diversification of oil supplies. Expanding our portfolio with additional volume from the North Sea helps increase stable supply to our refineries and, consequently, uninterrupted fuel deliveries to all ORLEN stations in the region. We are successfully strengthening relationships with the world's largest oil producers and securing new supply directions. This is precisely the result of the creation of a strong multi-energy concern, which has a stronger position in trade negotiations. We are active all over the world and we use our potential to develop extensive cooperation with suppliers from Europe and outside the continent. This has allowed us in Poland to become fully independent of Russian crude, increasing the energy security of the entire region. The contract with bp is a potential starting point to further cooperation, including in areas related to both companies' involvement in the energy transition," says Daniel Obajtek, CEO of ORLEN.
The agreement that ORLEN signed with bp covers the supply of up to 6 million tons of high-quality crude from a reliable source over a twelve-month period. This amount represents over 15 percent of the oil needs of the entire, integrated ORLEN Group and will be supplied from North Sea origin oil via ORLEN’s terminals in Gdansk and Butinge. The first shipment is scheduled for late August/early September this year.
As part of its diversification strategy, ORLEN is building its import portfolio based on oil supplies from the North Sea, West Africa, the Mediterranean basin as well as the Persian and Mexican Gulf.
Already at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the company was one of the first companies in Europe to abandon imports of Urals oil by sea, even though the embargo on such supplies was not introduced until December 2022. In the first quarter of this year ORLEN did not renew its contract with Rosneft and the contract with Tatneft was terminated by ORLEN too, which made it possible to completely abandon the supply of Russian oil to Poland. Meanwhile, as recently as 2013, as much as 98 percent of the crude processed in Plock was Russian oil. The corporation also abandoned its purchase of fuels from the East - as it did with oil long before the European sanctions, which did not take effect until February 5, 2023.
From deposits in the North Sea, ORLEN obtains such oil as: Forties, Oseberg, Johan Sverdrup, Troll, Grane, Brent and Ekofisk. In turn, Forcados and Bonny Light oil are imported from West Africa. ORLEN Group's supply basket also includes WTI, Bakken and Mars grades produced in the United States.