OREANDA-NEWS. Russia's state-controlled Rosneft has signed a crude and refined products supply deal with Greek refiner Hellenic Petroleum.

Rosneft will supply crude and other feedstocks to Hellenic's refineries, and will set up its own sales operations for products refined at the plants. Rosneft is also considering selling some products into the bunker market.

Rosneft does not make direct deliveries of crude and products to Greece. But Hellenic buys Urals crude in the secondary market, shipped from Novorossiysk, and it buys CPC Blend crude. Together these Russian grades make up about half of the crude Hellenic processes.

Hellenic cut crude refining to 3.84mn t in the first quarter, from 3.96mn t in the same period a year earlier. It said the share of Urals within its crude slate slipped to 23pc from 29pc a year earlier, while CPC Blend rose to 27pc from 20pc.

Hellenic owns the 140,000 b/d Aspropyrgos refinery, the 100,000 b/d Elefsis refinery and the 83,000 b/d Thessaloniki refinery in Greece — around 65pc of the country's total capacity.

Greece imports almost all of its crude requirements.

Refined products exports from the country were 15.5mn t in 2014, while imports were 3.6mn t, according to data from EU statistical agency Eurostat.

Shipping data shows Rosneft sent about 420,000t of diesel, 30,000t of fuel oil and 30,000t of VGO from the Black Sea port of Tuapse to Greece in the first four months of this year. Some of these shipments were arranged by trading companies Gunvor and Trafigura. Other Russian producers send refined products to Greece from Novorossiysk.

Hellenic has also started buying Iranian crude since the lifting of sanctions earlier this year. Hellenic and Iran's state-owned NIOC signed an agreement in late January for the supply of 60,000 b/d of crude, with the option of increasing the total to 150,000 b/d. The first shipment of 1mn bl under this contract was made in April.

Hellenic is currently buying crude from NIOC at Iranian ports on a fob basis, because of regulatory problems facing Iranian tankers shipping oil to European ports. In early May the commercial director of Iranian state shipping company NITC said Iranian tankers may start deliveries to Europe in June, "if required."