Georgia's only refinery starts replacing Russian crude with Kazakh and Libyan oil

Black Sea Petroleum, owner of Georgia's Kulevi refinery, said on Monday 3 August 2026 that the plant received and processed Kazakh crude in July and would continue taking Kazakh barrels through August. According to the Interfax news agency, a Libyan cargo is due to arrive between 20 and 30 August under a supply agreement signed on 3 July with an unnamed international company. The Libyan contract runs through the end of 2027 and includes an extension option.

The switch is aimed at avoiding European Union sanctions. The EU imposed a transaction ban on Kulevi in its 21st sanctions package on 23 July 2026, targeting the refinery's processing of Russian oil. The restriction carries a six month delay, giving the company until 25 January 2027 to document a complete switch to non Russian supplies. EU officials said the refinery could be removed from the sanctions list once the European Commission verifies compliance. Black Sea Petroleum plans to eliminate Russian crude from the refinery's feedstock by early September.

Kulevi began operating in October 2025 with an annual processing capacity of 1.2 million metric tons and processed more than 650,000 tons in the first half of 2026. A planned second phase would raise capacity to 4.5 million tons per year. The refinery had received six Russian crude shipments between October 2025 and May 2026, and cargoes of refined products from Kulevi later reached Spain and Bulgaria, prompting scrutiny over whether Russian crude was entering Western markets after processing in Georgia.