On Friday evening Beijing time, as commodity traders were preparing for the weekend, a powerful news came that Ukraine was preparing to halt the transit of Russian crude oil and natural gas to Europe starting next year.
When multiple Eastern European countries were shocked by this, Ukraine quickly clarified that natural gas was supposed to be stopped, and as for stopping the transportation of Russian crude oil, it was a mistake.
What's up?
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Podlyak stated in a media interview that Ukraine will stop delivering Russian oil and gas to European countries through the "Friendship" pipeline as early as January 1 next year.
He pointed out that countries such as Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, etc. are still obtaining Russian crude oil from the "Friendship" pipeline. However, according to the EU agreement, these countries need to diversify the sources of imported crude oil and stop obtaining transit crude oil through Ukraine, as well as natural gas.
Podolak also stated that if European countries need to import natural gas from Kazakhstan or Azerbaijan, Ukraine is willing to continue transporting it, but specific agreements need to be negotiated separately.
The "Friendship" pipeline used to be an energy artery connecting Russia and Europe. The pipeline starts from Russia and is divided into a northern line and a southern line after entering Belarus. The northern line connects Poland and Germany through Belarus, while the southern line supplies energy to countries such as Hungary through Ukraine. After Russia and Ukraine entered a state of war in 2022, at the request of European countries, Ukraine continued to transport crude oil to Russia and also continued to collect freight from Russia.
[align center] (European oil transportation network at its peak, source: S&P Global)