ATHENS (Reuters) – Hellenic Petroleum, Greece’s biggest oil refiner, has clinched an initial deal to get additional crude oil supplies from Saudi Arabia, two sources from the refiner said on Tuesday.
“There has been an initial agreement to increase crude oil quantities that Hellenic Petroleum buys from Saudi Arabia to further secure the smooth supply of the Greek market with fuel,” one of the sources told Reuters.
Saudi Arabia accounted for 8% of Hellenic’s crude oil feedstock last year, its fifth biggest supplier after Kazakhstan, Iraq, Russia and Egypt.
Hellenic bought some 2.5 million tonnes of Russian crude, about 18% of its total crude supplies, last year and has said it could replace it with similar grades mostly from the Middle East if needed.
Moscow is starting to face problems in selling its crude oil and oil products as Western sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and voluntary actions by buyers start to bite.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)
