By Robert Harvey and Marek Strzelecki
LONDON/WARSAW, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Polish integrated oil firm Orlen is rushing to find crude oil cargoes from the North Sea and further afield to replace disrupted Saudi imports, five industry sources told Reuters.
Saudi oil giant Saudi Aramco became Orlen’s top supplier in 2022, helping wean it off of Russian oil but making the Polish company reliant on the Saudi producer which is now grappling with disruptions to its exports due to war in the Middle East.
Orlen purchased several cargoes of crude oil in spot tenders on Friday and Monday, the sources said. It picked up North Sea grades including Grane, Johan Sverdrup and Johan Castberg, two of the traders said.
It also tendered for grades further afield including U.S. WTI Midland and Kazakh CPC Blend, two sources added.
Orlen and subsidiaries operate oil refineries in Poland, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. Poland’s Baltic port of Gdansk received around 160,000 barrels per day of Saudi crude this year to date, and Lithuania’s Butinge received 63,000 bpd, according to data form analytics firm Kpler.
Together, those accounted for around 59% of Europe’s total Saudi imports, the data show. Orlen also imported a smaller volume of Saudi crude to Trieste which is connected to its Czech plants.
At least four tanker fixtures to bring crude oil from the terminal in Sidi Kerir, Egypt to Gdansk in September have failed, shipping data reviewed by Reuters showed.
Saudi Arabia is grappling with a wave of attacks from Iran-aligned militia, including one which took its East-West Pipeline offline last Thursday.
ARAMCO IS ORLEN’S TOP SUPPLIER
Saudi Aramco in recent years became Orlen’s largest supplier, delivering some 40% of the crude Orlen processes.
Last month, Orlen signed a contract with Equinor for supplies of up to 25% of Orlen’s refining capacity in Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic, making the Norwegian company its second-largest supplier.
By contrast, in 2015 Orlen was almost fully relying on crude from Russia, according to the company’s former CEO. The company reduced its dependency over the following years.
No further details on the tenders were available and the results could not be directly confirmed with the counterparties. Orlen declined to comment on details of specific commercial transactions, but said it actively manages its supply portfolio to ensure the uninterrupted operation of its refining assets.
“Adjusting and optimising purchase volumes is a standard, ongoing part of the Orlen Group’s operations, driven by both current production needs and changing market conditions,” an Orlen spokesperson said.
Currently, feedstock deliveries to Orlen refineries are proceeding without disruption, the spokesperson said.
(Reporting by Robert Harvey in London and Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw, and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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