Russia's Rosneft said on Friday that fuel prices in Germany would likely jump if the PCK Schwedt refinery it owns alongside Shell and Eni replaces Russian pipeline oil supplies with more expensive, seaborne non-Russian barrels, APA reports citing Reuters.
The European Union plans an almost-complete embargo of Russian barrels by year-end and is trying to wean itself off Russian crude imports, which have fed inland refineries in Germany, Poland, and other central European nations via pipeline.
Rosneft said the refinery's capacity would be cut by half if supplied only via pipeline from the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock. It currently receives all its supplies via the Druzhba pipeline from Russia.
"According to our estimates, the loss from PCK's operation in this mode will be about 300 million euros per year," Rosneft said.
"The replacement of even a part of Russian supplies will lead to underloading of the plant and a sharp increase in the cost of petroleum products, the shortage of which is already a serious threat to the German consumer market today."
A spokesman for Rosneft declined to give further details.
A tanker of U.S. sour crude oil was delivered to Rostock last week for the first time to feed into PCK Schwedt, according to sources, analysts and vessel tracking data.
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