Lukoil said yesterday that it was going to raise oil prices for its partners from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.
“We want to hold talks with our partners concerning price increase. In our opinion, the price should be just, market and competitive against other directions”, Wagit Alekpierow, Lukoil CEO said on Tuesday.
Analysts are worried.
“The Russians have recently said they would raise the oil sold to German Schwedt refinery by USD 2.5 per barrel. We don’t know how the negotiations ended. If the same scenario happened in Poland, and they managed to raise prices by the same level, the Polish refineries would have to pay USD 350m more annually”, Andrzej Szczesniak, an independent fuel analyst said.
He wondered whether Lukoil would raise prices after the present contracts expire or they will renegotiate them earlier.
Poland’s largest refineries seem not to worry. Representatives of PKN Orlen stress that the company has no contract with Lukoil for oil deliveries.
“It has no meaning for the futures covering over 80 percent of PKN Orlen’s needs. Time will show how the spot market reacts. And by the way, if someone may raise price, he does it, and not only talks about it”, Cezary Filipowicz, PKN Orlen deputy CEO for oil exploration and trade said.
Representatives of Grupa Lotos say that neither Lukoil nor its partners deliver oil to the refinery.
“Besides, we have contracts and suitable provisions with our deliverers. Russia cannot threat us: unless you take our oil at higher price, or we will sell it elsewhere. The problem is that there are very few refineries which can produce Russian oil”, Jaroslaw Krynski, Grupa Lotos deputy CEO for trade added.
PKN Orlen imports from Russia 95 percent of its oil while Grupa Lotos imports 90 percent of oil from Russia.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.261)