Georgian oil refinery refuses to process russian crude oil

This was announced by Black Sea Petroleum LLC (which owns the refinery).

Specifically, the refinery will cease processing russian crude oil in August–September 2026. Instead, in early July, the refinery began processing crude oil from Kazakhstan.

In addition, Libyan crude is due to arrive at the refinery in Kulevo on 20–30 August. According to the company, the agreement with Libya will remain in force until the end of 2027, although it may be extended.

At the end of March 2026, the refinery in Kuleva announced that it had set itself the target of completely replacing russian oil with alternative supplies. At that time, the company began working on diversification in order to export its petroleum products to the European Union.

By the end of July, the EU had already introduced its 21st package of sanctions against russia. At that time, the European Union imposed sanctions on transactions involving the Georgian refinery in Kuleva.

The refinery in Kulevo opened in October 2025. At the same time, Rosneft delivered its first shipment of crude oil to the facility — 105,340 tonnes of Siberian Light crude from the russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Source: Babel