BAKU
Azerbaijan is likely to suspend oil exports to Ukraine due to security risks amid military conflict in the country, an industrial source told the Tribune.
Russia launched its long-feared attack on Ukraine, striking major cities and strategic sites over a wide geographical area in an operation described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as a swoop to “demilitarise and denazify” but not to occupy its ex-Soviet neighbour.
“Due to the aggravation of the situation between Ukraine and the Russian Federation and the threat to the security of deliveries of Azerbaijani oil to Ukraine, oil exports from Baku to Odessa will most likely be temporarily suspended,” the source, who did not want to named, said.
Ukraine is one of the top three buyers of oil from Azerbaijan. The country imported about 337,000 tonnes of crude from Azerbaijan for $196 million in January 2022.
In 2021, Ukraine purchased about 850,000 tonnes of oil for $373.4 million.
Azerbaijani oil makes up about 80 percent of Ukraine’s total oil purchases and mainly goes to the Kremenchuk refinery.
Last year, Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR became an export operator of Rosneft’s oil products in Ukraine and started to supply diesel fuel produced by Rosneft to Ukraine. Its quota stood at more than 100,000 tonnes of diesel fuel and 12,000 tonnes of liquefied gas.
Swiss-based trader Proton Energy Group was previously supplying Rosneft diesel and liquefied petroleum gas to Ukraine, but stopped exports from April last year.
SOCAR has had an office in Ukraine since 2008. In 2010 the company began operating on the Ukrainian fuel market.
Ukraine consumes more than 7 million tonnes of diesel a year, importing two-thirds of the quantity it needs, mainly from Russia and Belarus. After Proton stopped supplies, Ukraine sought to increase seaborne imports but volumes have been insufficient, Reuters reported.