Georgia’s only refinery completely abandons Russian oil: What is reason
Illustrative photo: a Georgian oil refinery on the path to a complete abandonment of Russian oil (Getty Images)
The oil refinery in Kulevi, owned by the Georgian company Black Sea Petroleum (BSP), will completely abandon Russian oil, according to Business Media.
He noted that the EU currently bans imports of petroleum products derived from Russian oil. At the same time, Potskhveria explained that the company’s strategic goal is precisely to export to the European market.
The BSP CEO also said that an obstacle to fully abandoning oil from the aggressor country is the delay in starting the transit of Turkmen oil to Georgia by Azerbaijan.
"I certainly hope that this issue will be resolved in the near future, and we will be able to launch this railway connection, followed by Kazakh oil and so on," he said.
This month, the EU placed BSP on a preliminary list of companies subject to sanctions for importing and processing Russian oil.
In October last year, Rosneft delivered 105,000 tons of oil to the Kulevi port for further processing at the BSP refinery.
Recently, the United States temporarily eased sanctions on Russian oil and petroleum products. The authorization applies only to oil loaded onto vessels before March 12, and sales are permitted until April 11.
According to estimates from a diplomatic source cited by RBC-Ukraine, such a move is unlikely to stabilize global markets, but it may allow the Kremlin to finance the war for longer.
It is also worth noting that on March 24, Bloomberg reported that Russia’s oil revenues had returned to the level of March 2022. According to the outlet, Moscow’s average daily revenue from raw material exports in March doubled compared to the beginning of the year — from $135 million to $270 million.
