Poland and Germany are set to reduce purchases of Russian flagship Urals crude blend via the Druzhba pipeline this month after Moscow cut its oil output along with other leading producers, traders said on Friday.
Europe has already cut imports of seaborne Urals, which has traded at a premium to the dated Brent benchmark.
Three traders said Urals supplies via the northern spur of the Soviet-built Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline to Poland and Germany will decrease to around 2.5 million tonnes (590,000 barrels per day) in July from 2.85 million tonnes in June.
Of this, Polish refineries will get 200,000 tonnes less than last month, sales to Germany are set to decline by around 150,000 tonnes.
Traders said that Russian mid-sized oil producer Tatneft will halt oil supplies to Germany this month. Usually it supplies some 50,000 tonnes of Urals to the country a month.
Rosneft is set to cut its Urals flows to Germany, where it owns stakes in several refineries, by around 100,000 tonnes from June.
At the same time, supplies of Rosneft and Tatneft via the southern spur of the pipeline to Czech Republic will amount to 350,000 tonnes after the flows dried up in June due to refinery maintenance.
Traders also said Russian oil exports to Slovakia and Hungary will remain stable this month. Rosneft, Tatneft and Transneft, Russia's oil pipeline monopoly, did not reply to requests for comment.
