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WARSAW — Russia has halted provides of oil to Poland through the Druzhba pipeline, the chief govt of Polish refiner PKN Orlen mentioned on Saturday, including that the corporate would faucet different sources to plug the hole.

The halt in provides through the pipeline – which has been exempted from EU sanctions imposed on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – got here a day after Poland delivered its first Leopard tanks to Ukraine.

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“We’re successfully securing provides. Russia has halted provides to Poland, for which we’re ready. Solely 10% of crude oil has been coming from Russia and we are going to change it with oil from different sources,” PKN Orlen Chief Government Daniel Obajtek wrote on Twitter.

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The corporate mentioned it may absolutely provide its refineries through sea and that the halt in pipeline provides wouldn’t impression deliveries of gasoline and diesel to shoppers.

As of February, after a contract with Russia’s Rosneft expired, Orlen has been getting oil underneath a take care of Russia’s oil and pure gasoline firm Tatneft.

Tatneft and Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

The provision halt got here after U.S. President Joe Biden visited Warsaw and Kyiv this week in a present of assist for Ukraine a yr after the invasion.

On Friday, the European Union agreed on a tenth bundle of sanctions on Russia.

Following the invasion of Ukraine and earlier than the EU embargoed seaborne provides from Russia, Orlen stopped shopping for Russian oil and fuels through the ocean.

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The corporate’s provide portfolio now contains oil from Western Africa, the Mediterranean, the Gulf and the Gulf of Mexico, it mentioned. It additionally has a provide contract with Saudi Aramco as of 2022.

Seaborne provides attain Poland through Naftoport, an oil terminal in Gdansk on the Baltic Sea. It might obtain 36 million tonnes of oil yearly topping volumes that may be processed by Polish refineries and is partly used to produce oil to refineries in japanese Germany which can be linked to Druzhba. “Given the capability of Naftoport and the truth that we additionally produce other routes to import motor fuels, shoppers won’t really feel any impression, whereas Orlen has been ready for this for months,” Mateusz Berger, Secretary of State in command of strategic power infrastructure advised Reuters by telephone.

(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki Modifying by Helen Popper and Frank Jack Daniel)