Poland’s Orlen Ends Russian Oil Purchases

Poland’s refiner Orlen is ending ties with Russian oil as a long-term contract with Rosneft expires on June 30, in a move to boost energy security in the entire central European region, the Polish company said on Monday. The contract with Rosneft, which ended on June 30, 2025, was the final agreement linking Orlen to Russian crude. This contract covered deliveries to Orlen’s refinery in Litvinov in the Czech Republic. Since March 2025, all of Orlen group’s refineries have been supplied exclusively with crude sourced outside of Russia. The expiry of the 12-year contract with Rosneft “means that ORLEN – and, by extension, the entire region – is no longer bound by any agreements with Russian entities for the supply of oil,” the Polish refiner said. Currently, Orlen’s refineries process crude from the Middle East and Persian Gulf, the North Sea, Africa, and both Americas, Fafara said. “This is what real energy security looks like, the one we promised to Polish citizens and neighbours,” the executive added. Two months ago, the Czech Republic ended its 60-year-long dependence on Russian oil supply after capacity upgrades on a pipeline from the west. For the first time ever, the Czech Republic became independent from Russian oil pipeline deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline. Flows through the Druzhba pipeline were exempted from the EU embargo on imports of Russian crude oil by sea that came into effect on December 5, 2022. The Czech Republic, however, decided in 2022 to work to free itself of Russian oil supply and began a project to expand the capacity of the Trans Alpine (TAL) pipeline in a project called TAL PLUS. The plan is to boost oil supply to the Czech Republic from Italy. Czech pipeline operator MERO is now transporting the crude to Orlen Unipetrol for processing at the Litvinov refinery, one of the country’s two processing facilities, MERO chief executive Jaroslav Pantucek said in April. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com