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Georgia’s Kulevi refinery shifts from Russian crude to Kazakh and Libyan

The Kulevi refinery plans to end Russian crude feedstock by early September as EU sanctions phase in, with a 2027 compliance documentation deadline of January 25.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Energy

Georgia’s only oil refinery, the Kulevi facility, has begun swapping Russian crude for supplies from Kazakhstan and Libya, according to OilPrice, citing Interfax reporting. Black Sea Petroleum said the refinery received and processed Kazakh crude in July and will continue taking Kazakh barrels through August. A Libyan cargo is scheduled to arrive between August 20 and August 30 under a supply agreement signed on July 3 with an unnamed international company, with the contract running through the end of 2027 and including an extension option.

Black Sea Petroleum plans to eliminate Russian crude from the refinery’s feedstock by early September, accelerating a diversification program that previously included Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The move comes after the European Union imposed a transaction ban on Kulevi in its 21st sanctions package on July 23, targeting the refinery’s processing of Russian oil.

The EU restriction includes a six-month delay, giving the company until January 25, 2027, to document a complete switch to non-Russian supplies. OilPrice also reported that EU officials said the refinery could be removed from the sanctions list after the European Commission verifies compliance, and that Kulevi began operating in October 2025 with an annual processing capacity of 1.2 million metric tons, having processed more than 650,000 tons in the first half of 2026.

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