After NaftoRynok had published its investigation on the Russian LPG supplied from Poland (see NR’s Daily fuels&LPG issue dated 12.04.2023), Polish and Ukrainian traders informed us of another scheme for the supply of Russian propane-butane to Ukraine. We revealed the way a number of Ukrainian importers had brought gas supported with Kazakh-origin documents from Poland in a volume exceeding that received in Poland.
Thus, through the mediation of Polish terminal operators, the gas produced by the Orenburg Gazprom Pererabotka gas refinery, a Russian company that pays taxes to the budget of the terrorist country, is supplied to Ukraine. According to traders, gas is sold on the border to the Russian Federation and Belarus as the resource of KazRosGas, a joint company of the Kazakh KazMunayGas and the Russian Gazprom. KazRosGas LLP supplies crude from the Karachaganak oil and gas condensate field to Gazprom's Orenburg refinery for processing. Kazakhstan takes part of the obtained natural gas to the domestic market, and the Russian Gazprom sells the surplus part as exports. In addition, other products are made after processing. In particular, propane-butane produced at the Russian refinery. In order to avoid Ukrainian sanctions, certain companies started exporting it to Ukraine under the certificates of origin from the Republic of Kazakhstan after transshipment at the Polish LPG terminals.
NaftoRynok has at its disposal a response letter to the official appeal of traders to the Polish Customs, which states that this “situation does not concern the import of gas to the EU market, but concerns the re-export of goods from Russia to Ukraine. The customs authority (Polish Customs - NR) cannot comment on the provisions concerning confirmation of the country of origin that are in force in other countries.” We would like to remind you that the latest EU sanctions on Russian oil products (that entered into force on February 5, 2023) do not include any restrictions on liquefied gas. As a result, according to the results of the first quarter of 2023, Poland remains the largest importer of Russian LPG – about 350,000 tons.
This explains the unwillingness of the Polish Customs to resolve the scheme for re-export of the Orenburg refinery’s resource to Ukraine, in case there are documents issued by Kazakh authorities on the origin of the LPG. According to NaftoRynok, such supplies could account for up to 18% of LPG imports from Poland in 2022.
According to the data provided by logistics companies, 83.9 thousand tons of LPG were shipped from the shipment station of the Orenburg Gazprom Pererabotka (station of Kargala) for export to Poland in 2022. 78.1 thousand tons entered Poland in transit through Belarus. Of them, the railway crossing (Belarus) – Kuznica (Poland) turned out to be the largest entry site thereof into the country – 57.7 thousand tons. Besides, 21.1 thousand tons entered through the Brest-Małaszewicze crossing. Another 5.3 thousand tons crossed the Polish border from the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation.
Again, BARTER SA became the largest shipper of truck LPG consignments of 41.5 thousand tons from Poland to Ukraine in 2022. Of these, at least 29 thousand tons were purchased by Ukrainian companies on self-delivery terms from the BARTER SA terminal in Sokulka. The terminal is located 17 km from one of the largest sources of Russian gas inflow to Poland (including the already mentioned resource of the Orenburg gas refinery) - the Bruzgi - Kuznica railway crossing (306,000 tons of Russian gas in 2022). At the same time, out of 29,000 tons of the LPG truck lots shipped to the Ukrainians under the FCA Sokulka terms, 25,800 tons were registered as gas of Kazakh origin when crossing the Ukrainian border. Another 4.4 thousand tons, also of Kazakh origin, were purchased by Ukrainian companies from Barter SA and brought to the country by rail. At the same time, according to the railway transportation data, the Bruzgi – Kuznitsa crossing did not receive any gas from the territory of Kazakhstan in 2022. Moreover, the Pakar shipper (gas storage operator in the city of Bialystok), being the second shipper in terms of the volume of LPG truck deliveries to Ukraine of 30.5 thousand tons in 2022, operates near the Russian LPG supplies hub, namely Bruzgi-Kuznica crossing point. The Swedish EVICOR AG is the seller of the majority of the resource from this basis.
In addition to deliveries from Sokulka, BARTER SA shipped gas to Ukrainian companies from other bases in Poland. For example, from the largest base of truck lot shipment to Ukraine – Małaszewicze. At the same time, according to the data of Polish railway carriers, BARTER SA was the recipient of 1.9 thousand tons of rail consignments of LPG from the Orenburg gas refinery at the station of Małaszewicze in December 2022.
The Brest- Małaszewicze crossing is the second main station for the supply of the Orenburg gas refinery resource to Poland – 21.1 thousand tons in 2022. During June-December 2022, Romanian resident VIXON GAS SRL exported 12,000 tons of liquefied gas from Poland to Ukraine through the Małaszewicze station. According to market players, this resource also arrived in Ukraine with the indication of the country of origin – the Republic of Kazakhstan.
We will remind you that before the full-scale Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the Romanian VIXON GAS SRL was one of the main recipients of the transit resource of the Orenburg gas refinery through the territory of Ukraine. Only in 2021, 110,000 tons of liquefied gas from the Orenburg gas refinery arrived from the Solovei-Topoli station for transshipment in the Odesa region, and were subsequently addressed to the Romanian VIXON GAS SRL.
Thus, the supplies of liquefied gas to Ukraine from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia (refer to NaftoRynok’s Daily fuels&LPG issues dated 04.12.2023 and 02.03.2023) remain the most likely flows of propane-butane produced by the terrorist country to the country that suffers from terrorism and repays it. As of April 17, 2023, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada and the NSDC have not adopted any document that could stop the supply of Russian and Belarusian oil products to Ukraine. On April 14, 2023, the State Customs Service of Ukraine published the news regarding countermeasures against importing of oil products from the Russian Federation, where not a single case of stopping the import of Russian fuel into the territory of Ukraine was mentioned. 80% of fuel importers use the ban absence. The first meeting of traders with the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine on limiting the supply of oil products from the Russian Federation took place on January 20, 2023.
#nonrussianorigin
#nonbelarusianorigin
