Black Sea Petroleum (BSP), which owns a refinery in the Georgian port of Kulevi, is switching to crude oil from Kazakhstan and Libya as part of its plan to phase out Russian oil gradually, the company said, Interfax reports.
"On July 1, 2026, BSP announced that it would begin refining exclusively non-Russian crude from August to September 2026. The Kulevi Refinery already received and processed Kazakh oil in July and will continue to do so in August," the company noted.
As also reported, BSP on July 3 signed an agreement with an unnamed international company for the supply of oil from Libya.
"The Kulevi Refinery will receive Libyan oil from August 20 to 30. The agreement is valid until the end of 2027 and provides for an extension," according to the statement.
"The company continues to implement the feedstock diversification plan, is engaging constructively with the European Commission and other relevant institutions, and is providing clear and verifiable evidence of progress in implementing the diversification plan. When taken together, these measures are designed to ensure a smooth transition to entirely non-Russian feedstocks, as well as the uninterrupted and stable operation of the refinery," BSP notes.
On July 24, BSP said that it would completely cease refining Russian oil in early September owing to preventative sanctions imposed by the European Union.
On July 23, the EU imposed preventative sanctions on the Kulevi oil refinery in the Georgian port of Kulevi, which enter into force on January 25, 2027, unless the refinery ceases processing Russian oil.
The ban applies to refineries processing Russian oil, and one of them, the Kulevi Refinery, is also included in the list. Inclusion in the list will take place with a six-month delay to allow the refinery time to diversify activities away from Russian oil. Following an assessment by the EC, the EU Council will decide on the need to include the refinery in the list, the European Commission said in a press release following the announcement of the sweeping 21st sanctions package against Russia.
On July 2, BSP officially announced its intention to stop importing Russian oil completely starting in August-September, and switch to crude from Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
The company said that oil-refining volumes exceeded 650,000 tonnes in the first half of 2026.
The only refinery in Georgia, which is being built in the Khobi Municipality, commissioned its first phase with capacity of 1.2 million tonnes at the end of last year. Commissioning the second phase should increase the refinery's capacity to 4.5 million tonnes of oil per year. Total investment is estimated at $800 million.
The refinery is located adjacent to the Kulevi port terminal of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), on the eastern Black Sea coast near the village of Kulevi in the Khobi Municipality. The refinery was commissioned in May 2008, with overall capacity of 10 million tonnes of bulk oil per year.
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