The Druzhba pipeline will supply Germany with Kazakh oil instead of Russian.

Kazakhstan will send their first batch of oil through the Russian Druzhba oil pipeline to Germany as soon as possible, said the Minister of Energy of Kazakhstan, Bolat Akchulakov. Kazakhstan’s resources will replace Russian oil, which the EU has pledged to stop buying as part of broader sanctions put in place following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The Druzhba pipeline, built by the Soviet Union, is still exempt from sanctions, but the German refineries in Loin and Schwedt, which are connected to the pipeline, have not ordered Russian oil this year. In September 2022, the German government transferred management of Rosneft’s subsidiaries in their country to the Federal Network Agency. These companies used to import several hundred million euros worth of crude oil from Russia to Germany every month.