Energy: Kazakhstan wants to ship Druzhba oil via Russian ports

Ust-Luga is a Russian oil transshipment port in the Baltic Sea. The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates an oil pipeline that runs from the Tengiz deposit in northwestern Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. In both cases, the oil would then be loaded onto ships and transported further by sea. According to the Kazakh Ministry of Energy, the move is aimed at ensuring the stability of exports and the uninterrupted delivery of the raw material to global markets. However, it is not clear from the official announcements whether the destination of these deliveries remains Schwedt.

Kazakhstan has so far delivered oil to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline, which also runs through Russia. While there were 2.1 million tons in 2025, around three million tons should flow via this route this year. The crude oil went primarily to the Schwedt refinery near Berlin. However, as of May 1st, Russia will no longer send Kazakh oil via this route. Moscow cited technical difficulties, but did not give a timeframe for resolving the problems.

Germany is also examining alternative delivery routes via Gdansk

“We are in discussions with Poland to check whether short-term and temporary replacement deliveries via Gdansk are possible,” said the Federal Ministry of Economics in Berlin. The federal government is ready to support the Schwedt refinery in “substituting the lost crude oil deliveries via alternative supply routes”. A lack of Kazakh oil deliveries to the refineries would ultimately not jeopardize the security of supply of petroleum products in Germany, even if PCK Schwedt would have to operate at lower capacity utilization, according to the ministry.