Germany is in talks with Poland on whether temporary replacement oil supplies can be delivered to the PCK Schwedt refinery through the Polish port of Gdansk after Russia said it would halt Kazakh crude flows to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline from May 1, Reuters reported on April 28.

A spokesperson for Germany’s economy ministry said discussions were continuing and declined to provide further details, saying supply contracts were a matter for the companies involved while the government was closely following the process.

Poland has set conditions linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine for any such deliveries. “The condition is that the recipient of the crude must be one of the non-Russian shareholders of the Schwedt refinery — Shell or Eni,” Paweł Łukaszewicz of the Polish state-run pipeline operator PERN said, according to Bloomberg.

Schwedt refinery is partly controlled by Eni and Shell, while the Russian company Rosneft’s stake of more than 54% remains under German government trusteeship.

A spokesperson for Poland’s energy ministry said the country had the technical capacity to handle emergency deliveries to Schwedt, but that any potential increase in volumes would depend on operational, logistical and market factors, Reuters reported.

Russia has said it will stop supplying Kazakh crude to Germany through the Druzhba pipeline, starting on May 1, forcing the refinery near Berlin to seek alternative supplies.

Kazakhstan’s oil exports to Germany via the Russian pipeline totalled 2.146mn metric tonnes, or about 43,000 barrels per day, in 2025, up 44% from 2024. Shipments reached 730,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2026.

Kazakhstan will redirect oil volumes originally planned for Germany through alternative routes to global markets via Russian territory, Azattyq, the Kazakh service of the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, reported on April 28, citing the Ministry of Energy.

The ministry said the changes were operational and would not affect Kazakhstan’s production or export targets, according to Azattyq.