Georgia’s Black Sea Petroleum to fully replace Russian oil with Turkmen, Kazakh crude

Georgia’s Black Sea Petroleum (BSP) announced plans to completely replace Russian crude oil with supplies from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan at its refinery in Kulevi on the country’s Black Sea coast.

CEO David Potskhveria told local outlet Business Media that the move will allow BSP to export refined products to the European Union, noting that imports of Russian oil products into the EU are currently banned.

“We will completely replace Russian oil with Turkmen oil, and later also with oil from Kazakhstan, which will allow us to export our products to the EU,” the company’s top manager said. He explained the need for the switch by noting that importing Russian petroleum products into the EU is “currently prohibited.”

“Processing Turkmen oil at our refinery will begin as soon as the transit issue through Azerbaijan is resolved,” David Potskhveriya added.

Georgia’s first and only oil refinery can process 1.2 million tonnes of petroleum products per year, with the potential to increase capacity to 4.5 million tonnes. BSP’s refinery started operations in December of last year. The company’s international partners include Saudi Aramco and the multinational company Trafigura. In addition to the oil, fuel oil, and diesel currently being produced, BSP plans to soon produce and export Euro-5 standard gasoline, aviation fuel, and Euro-diesel.

By Vugar Khalilov