Key facts
- Georgia's Kulevi oil refinery will stop processing Russian crude oil.
- The operator, Black Sea Petroleum (BSP), announced the change on July 1.
- The refinery will begin processing non-Russian crude in August-September.
- This move aims to grant the refinery access to higher-margin markets, including EU countries.
- Alternative crude sources will include Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
Georgia's sole major full-cycle refinery, the Kulevi oil refinery, will cease accepting Russian crude oil starting in August-September, its operator Black Sea Petroleum (BSP) announced on July 1. The decision comes as the European Union tightens sanctions on Russian oil revenues.
BSP stated that processing non-Russian crude would provide greater access to other energy markets and open doors to high-margin markets for its products. The company plans to replace Russian crude with oil sourced from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and other countries. This strategic shift is intended to enable BSP to export its refined products to EU countries, which currently prohibit petroleum products derived from Russian oil.
The Kulevi oil refinery, which began operations in October 2025, was Georgia's first full-cycle refinery and was established to reduce the country's reliance on fuel imports. Shortly after its launch, the refinery began accepting Russian oil shipments via the port of Novorossiysk. Shipping data indicated a receipt of 105,340 metric tons of Russian crude on October 6, a period marked by warming ties between Moscow and Tbilisi.