Poland suffers $27mln losses per day due to Russia sanctions

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Financial Times
8 May 2023 00:26
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Despite all the losses incurred, the Chief Executive of Polish state-owned oil company Orlen paradoxically calls for even more sanctions.

Part of the Polish state-owned Orlen's refinery in Gdansk, Poland, 9 August 2022 (Reuters)

The chief executive of the Polish state-owned oil company Orlen, Daniel Obajtek, said the EU's ban on Russian crude oil is costing Orlen an estimated $27 million in economic losses each day due to the huge price gap between Russian-supplied oil and alternatively supplied oil of about $30 per barrel, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

"I would not call it [a] loss," the executive said, but he considered it a cost of not "supporting Russia".

Objatek admitted that Orlen was still purchasing oil of Russian origin, which is supplied through the Druzhba pipeline that pumps oil from the Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic, as it has not been included in the sanctions.

"The complete replacement of Russian oil requires an improvement in the logistics of oil supplies, which we are working on with the Czech government," Obajtek said to the Financial Times.

Poland only stopped importing Russian oil to its domestic refineries in February, as it completed its contractual obligations with the Russian company Tatneft. The Polish company continued using Russian oil as it feared backlash from a possible lawsuit if it violated the contract.

He further called for harsher sanctions on Russian oil, as he claimed that Russian companies are able to utilize certain loopholes to enter EU markets, without providing any "concrete evidence", the Financial Times reported.

"Russia is not selling oil and natural gas but still trades petrochemical products in Europe. It generates margins not only on hydrocarbons but on processing. Not to mention fertilizers and other products," the Chief Executive said.

The European Union, alongside the United States, Australia, and others, agreed to implement an embargo on Russian crude oil, in December 2022, by imposing a $60 price ceiling per barrel on Russian oil. The EU further commissioned price caps on Russian refined oil products such as a $100 price per barrel of diesel fuel, all of which have contributed to an enormous increase in energy prices all over Europe.