BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 23. Azeri light crude was already processed in Slovnaft refinery of Hungarian MOL Group in the beginning of May, the refinery’s Communications/Corporate Center told Trend.
The source at the refinery said that so far one cargo of Azeri light crude was processed (around 89 kilotons) to have a better view how this crude potentially can fit to Slovnaft future crude mix.
“This crude was chosen to be able to cover new mode of refinery operation and still keep uninterrupted product deliveries to our customers. Once Azeri crude was processed as a standalone crude feed we covered whole product portfolio that time domestic and export markets as well. In the future due to EU sanctions against Russia, we will process oil in such a way as to comply with the terms of the embargo within the mass balance,” said the source.
Earlier, seaborne crude from Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block was transported from the Sangachal oil terminal near Baku to Ceyhan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. The shipment has arrived in Croatia and is being delivered to the Slovnaft refinery via the Adria pipeline.
MOL Group’s priority is to increase the flexibility of oil procurement. In doing so, MOL has created a fully integrated value chain, which means it will be able to sell petroleum products processed in its own refinery from oil extracted from a field in which it is a shareholder.
MOL Group holds 9.57 percent share in Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli block.
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