By Christoph Steitz and Vladimir Soldatkin<\/p>\n
FRANKFURT\/MOSCOW, April 22 (Reuters) – Russia will stop the supply of Kazakh crude oil via the Druzhba pipeline to Germany from May 1, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on \u200cWednesday, forcing a major refinery near Berlin to make up the shortfall from elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The move deals a \u200cblow to the PCK Schwedt refinery, which supplies most of the German capital’s fuel and relies on Kazakhstan for 17% of its supplies. It also \u200badds to Germany’s fuel supply concerns as the Iran war disrupts flows from the Gulf.<\/p>\n
Novak said the move was due to “technical possibilities”, offering no further explanation.<\/p>\n
Kazakhstan’s oil exports to Germany via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline totalled 2.146 million metric tons, or around 43,000 barrels per day, last year, an increase of 44% from 2024, and 730,000 tons in the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n
Three industry \u200csources had told Reuters on Tuesday that \u2060Russia was set to stop oil exports from Kazakhstan via the Druzhba pipeline starting May 1.<\/p>\n
Supplies to Germany have been carried over a northern section of the pipeline, separate from the \u2060southern one that supplies Hungary and Slovakia, which is about to resume operation after repairs following a Russian drone strike in January.<\/p>\n
Germany controls Schwedt via a trusteeship after it effectively seized the stake of its majority owner, Russia’s Rosneft, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine \u200bin \u200b2022, which ended a long-standing energy relationship between Moscow and Berlin.<\/p>\n
“Starting \u200bfrom May 1, volumes of Kazakh oil previously \u200csupplied via the Druzhba pipeline to Germany will be redirected to other available logistics routes,” Novak told reporters on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Asked whether this would constitute a loss of supply for Germany, Novak said: “The Germans have given up on Russian oil, so they are doing fine.”<\/p>\n
Rosneft Germany was assessing the step and would adapt to any new situation, Germany’s economy ministry said, adding the Russian group was aware of its responsibility to the region.<\/p>\n
“At the same time, existing options will be utilised \u200cto ensure security of supply in Germany,” the ministry said, adding that \u200bthe move did not put the security of supply of petroleum products \u200bin jeopardy.<\/p>\n
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche outlined potential \u200balternatives, including deliveries through Gdansk or Rostock, which could supply the refinery via pipelines, adding she \u200ccould not comment on possible shortages in Berlin.<\/p>\n
The \u200bFederal Network Agency, the country’s energy \u200bregulator, which acts as trustee of Rosneft Germany’s activities, said there might still be regional pricing effects, adding it was closely coordinating with the company.<\/p>\n
Rosneft Germany was not immediately available for comment.<\/p>\n
While stripped of control via \u200bthe German trusteeship, Rosneft remains the main \u200clegal owner of the Schwedt refinery, holding a 54.17% stake, with Shell and Eni holding 37.5% and \u200b8.33%, respectively.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Vladimir Soldatkin; Additional reporting by Holger Hansen and Maria Martinez; editing by \u200bMatthias Williams, Thomas Seythal, Tomasz Janowski, Elaine Hardcastle, Rod Nickel)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Christoph Steitz and Vladimir Soldatkin FRANKFURT\/MOSCOW, April 22 (Reuters) – Russia will stop the supply of Kazakh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6552,18,6554,6429,5,6553,6501,1831,6551],"class_list":{"0":"post-6714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-alexander-novak","9":"tag-berlin","10":"tag-crude-oil","11":"tag-druzhba-pipeline","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-oil-exports","14":"tag-rosneft","15":"tag-russia","16":"tag-schwedt-refinery"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}