PKN says no issues with Urals quality

Polish oil company PKN Orlen says the quality of its Urals crude supplies is in line with specifications and it still predominantly processed the Russian grade in its refineries in the first quarter.

PKN is looking to diversify on the condition that buying other crudes makes economic sense. It has received one cargo of US WTI crude, and is assessing whether to import more. "Diversification is not the target for itself," PKN says.

Urals accounted for around 70pc of the 695,000 b/d the firm processed in the first quarter. A deterioration in Urals quality this year has prompted some European refiners to complain that they had to buy light crude for blending with the grade to achieve an acceptable feedstock quality. Other refiners say they had to reduce crude runs for a few days.

At PKN's largest plant, the 327,000 b/d Plock refinery in Poland, Urals accounted for around of 80pc of crude supplies. The remaining 20pc was dominated by Arabian Light — supplied under a term contract by Saudi state-owned Aramco — and Iranian light, PKN says.

At the 267,000 b/d Mazeikai refinery in Lithuania the share of Urals was around 85pc and in the Czech Republic Urals represented about 55pc. Urals is the main feedstock for PKN's 102,000 b/d Litvinov refinery in the Czech Republic. Its other refinery in the country, the 63,000 b/d Kralupy, processes sweet crudes — mainly Azeri Light.