Saudi Arabia has started supplying crude oil to Poland, the head of Russia’s biggest oil company Rosneft said on Tuesday.
The kingdom has become another Middle Eastern producer to enter a market traditionally dominated by Russia.
“We are working under conditions of tough competition,” Rosneft chief executive Igor Sechin told an investor conference in Moscow, according to Reuters.
“Saudi Arabia has entered the Polish market for the first time, with deliveries via Gdansk,” he said, referring to the port on the Baltic Sea.
“They are actively dumping, which is an element of the changes in world prices. Without doubt, the battle for markets is at this stage one of the key factors.”
“We have to make every effort to prevent a decrease in our share of supplies,” Sechin stated.
He however gave no details on the volumes of Saudi crude sent to Poland were given.
In another indication of the shifting balance in the global market, Hungary has increased oil imports from Iraq’s Kurdistan region, displacing Russian crude, according to trading sources.
