In the statement, the Russian government said that starting in 2012 state-controlled oil producer Rosneft will ship Russian crude oil directly to Polish refiners PKN Orlen in Plock and Grupa Lotos in Gdansk, eliminating intermediaries.
This is part of a larger plan in Russia to eliminate some intermediaries and silent partners from the gas and oil industries that fell out of the Kremlin’s favors. Ukraine’s RosUkrEnergo, which served as an intermediary between Gazprom and Ukraine, was kicked out of the gas supply chain last year.
Putin also insisted in 2009 to throw out a relatively small Polish company called Bartimpex from the shareholder structure of the Poland-based operator of a section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline — a proposal Poland eagerly agreed to.
The Russian prime minister alleged corruption was the reason why Bartimpex managed to grab an indirect stake in the Polish section of the pipeline in the 1990s. The company denied those claims and said it was instrumental in the pipeline’s construction, but whatever happened back then, nobody seems to need its services anymore.
Russia appears to no longer need the intermediaries in the oil sector. Most of these oil traders actually never even touch the merchandise they sell. Incidentally, some have been subject to major controversies in Poland, with accusations of money laundering or ties with the secret police resurfacing at regular intervals.
In 2007, PKN Orlen signed an agreement with Petraco for Rosneft’s crude oil supplies it receives using the Druzhba pipeline. The agreement expires at the end of 2011. If Russia sticks to its current policy, Petraco and its peers will have to embrace the fact that their days in Poland are numbered.
"The Wall Street Journal"
24 Ноября 2024 | воскресенье | 06:04
