Polish refiner PKN Orlen announced this week that it will increase its purchases of Saudi Arabia’s primary Arab Light crude oil by 30% from 300,000 tons per month to 400,000 tons. This equates to around 100,000 b/d. The volumes imported will supply the firm’s refineries in Lithuania and the Czech Republic as well as in Poland. PKN Orlen says the deal is “another step on the road to…increasing Poland’s energy security.”
PKN Orlen signed a swap agreement with Saudi Aramco’s trading subsidiary ATC in April 2019 where the Saudi firm receives high sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) in return for crude (MEES, 12 April 2019). This fuel oil presumably then supplies Saudi power plants with feedstock. HSFO values have dropped since the 1 January implementation of tighter regulations on sulfur content in shipping fuel. (CONTINUED - 131 WORDS)