Today Germany & Poland struck a deal, that enables Germany to join oil sanctions against russia .

A thread :

The refinery in Schwedt (red arrow) provides 90% of the fuel for Berlin, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (= 10% of all German fuel needs).

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Schwedt needs ~12 million tons of oil per year. From Schwedt oil is pumped to the refinery in Spergau (blue arrow), which needs ~11 million tons of oil per year. Spergau provides the fuel for Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia and is Germany's main methanol producer.

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Both refineries are dependent on oil coming through the Druzhba pipeline, as the Rostock-Schwedt pipeline's capacity is way too small.

If Germany would join oil sanctions against russia, both refineries would have to shut down due to lack of oil coming through Druzhba.

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However Poland's Pomeranian pipeline, which runs from Gdansk to Płock has a yearly capacity of 30 million tons, and connects at Płock to the Druzhba pipeline.

Today's agreement between Germany & Poland enables Germany to ship oil to Gdansk, feed it there into the Pomeranian

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pipeline and pump it from there to Schwedt.

Płock needs ~14 million tons of oil per year, leaving ~16 million tons for the German refineries. Add in the oil coming from Rostock and there is still a small shortfall in oil but both Schwedt and Spergau will continue operate.

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Therefore today's deal allows Germany to join oil sanctions vs. russia.

And the russians know it.

After the deal was announced russia immediately shut down the Yamal gas pipeline, threatening Germany that if it joins oil sanctions then russia will cut Germany off from gas.

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Now it comes down to @OlafScholz... will he be cowed by russia's blackmail and block oil sanctions or will he side with all NATO/EU/G7 nations (except Hungary).

It's up to Olaf now.

PS: Hungary can get oil through the Adria pipeline from Croatia and won't block sanctions.

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