Agencies
No Russian oil has been delivered via the Druzhba pipeline to the PCK refinery in Germany in more than two years because of sanctions levied against Moscow following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But with the plant in the town of Schwedt on the border with Poland struggling to adapt to processing other raw materials, calls are growing louder for a return to the good old days.
“Many people, especially in Schwedt, see it as conceivable and desirable that oil could once again flow via the pipeline,” the leader of the city council, Hans-Joachim Hoeppner, told AFP.
Having to accommodate different types of oil at the plant, which employs some 1,200 people, has made production less “effective”, said Hoeppner from the centre-right CDU.
The idea of reopening the door to the European market for Russia has up until now been firmly dismissed by officials in Berlin. But the thaw in US relations with the Kremlin instigated by President Donald Trump since his return to office has raised hopes of a possible agreement on a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. “If changes are happening in the relationship with Russia... then I think it is very possible that there is Russian oil,” said Hoeppner.
German sanctions on Russian oil brought a halt to deliveries of crude via the Druzhba pipeline — Russian for “friendship” — at the start of 2023.
Since then, the refinery in Schwedt has been drawing substitute supplies via a pipeline to Rostock, as well as small volumes through the Polish port of Gdansk and from Kazakhstan. The changes have left the plant operating at around 80 percent capacity and firmly “in the red”, said Danny Ruthenburg, head of the works council. A “solution” is urgently needed to keep the refinery running and save jobs locally, said Ruthenburg — whether that means more oil from Rostock or via the Druzhba pipeline after an end to the war in Ukraine.
