Polish oil group Orlen, which owns Lithuania’s Mazeikiai-based oil refinery Orlen Lietuva (Orlen Lithuania), plans to use only oil supplied by Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco, Energy Minister Dainius Kreivys says.

“Orlen is renouncing Russian oil and plans to produce products only from Aramco’s (Saudi Aramco – BNS) Saudi Arabian oil,” Kreivys told reporters on Friday.

Up until now, most of Orlen Lietuva’s refined oil has been Russian.

Earlier this week, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte also said Orlen planned to completely renounce Russian crude in the near future.

Audrius Daugnora, the deputy CEO at Orlen Lietuva, said earlier the company has been diversifying its crude sources since 2014 and refining not only Russian oil, adding that it would not be difficult for the company to give up Russian oil.

In his words, the refinery has normally processed about two-thirds of Russian oil in recent years, but now “the numbers are turning the other way”.

In early March, Orlen said it was taking steps to increase oil supplies from alternative sources, and also announced it had agreed with Saudi Aramco to buy five additional North Sea oil tankers, some of which will be used by the Mazeikiai refinery.

Poland’s Orlen announced last year it was buying 57 percent of crude for its refineries from Russia under long-term supply contracts, and also acquiring around 8 percent from Saudi Arabia, and the rest coming from the spot market.

en.delfi.lt