The head of the Polish oil refinery Orlen, Daniel Obaitek
©Global Look Press/Keystone Press Agency
The head of the Polish oil refinery Orlen, Daniel Obaitek, announced a multimillion-dollar loss of the enterprise. The ban on oil imports from Russia is to blame.
According to him, the company loses $27 million per day. The fact is that the cost of alternative supplies is higher by $30 per barrel, Obaitek explained in an interview with the Financial Times, published on Sunday, May 7th.
At the same time, the head of Orlen does not consider multi-million dollar losses. This is the “market value” of refusing to cooperate with the Russian Federation, he explained his point of view. All companies that refused to supply Russian oil faced this situation, Obaitek noted. According to him, Orlen still continues to use fuel from Russia supplied via the Druzhba pipeline at its refinery in the Czech city of Litvinov.
“Complete replacement of Russian oil requires improved supply logistics,” Obaitek explained. He noted that work in this direction continues with the government of the Czech Republic.
At the end of February, Obaitek announced that oil from Russia had ceased to flow to Poland. According to the head of Orlen, the country is fully prepared to cut off supplies. At the same time, the Russian company Transneft, one of the operators of the Druzhba pipeline, stopped pumping oil to Polish refineries due to lack of payment.
In April, Orlen announced that it had abandoned the last contract for the supply of fuel from the Russian Federation, which it had with Tatneft. It was valid until December 2024.
