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Russian oil still in demand, there are no problems with sales — Energy Minister

As TASS reported earlier, Poland could sign an unprecedented agreement with Saudi Arabia on oil supplies

Russian North-Kharampur oil field Sergei Bobylev/TASS

Russian North-Kharampur oil field

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

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Russian oil export to EU does not decline despite interest in Middle East oil — ministry

MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. Russian oil continues to be in demand, there are no problems with sales, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday.

"Our oil is in demand, we have no problems with selling oil," the Minister said.

As TASS reported earlier, Poland could sign an unprecedented agreement with Saudi Arabia on oil supplies, but it is still unclear when this could happen. Polish company PKN Orlen received from Saudi Arabia shipment of 100,000 tons of oil in Gdansk in early November. This delivery could be the first step to signing long-term agreements with Saudi Arabia.

Currently PKN Orlen has two contracts for supply of Urals oil through oil pipeline Druzhba: with Rosneft for 6 mln tons per year and with a trading company Mercuria Energy — for 6.3 mln tons a year.

Earlier, the Rosneft President Igor Sechin said that Saudi Arabia was "actively dumping" oil prices, even went to the Polish market. After that Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has accused Saudi Arabia of "fierce competition" in the markets.

However, Poland received the bulk of Russian oil via oil pipeline Druzhba. 93-95% of Russian oil to Poland have not changed for many years. In 2013, oil imports to Poland amounted to 24.3 mln tons, including 93.5% from Russia, in 2014 — 23.7 mln tons. In the Q1 2015 Poland imported about 5.5 mln tons of oil.

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