Georgia’s only refinery switches entirely to non-Russian crude

Black Sea Petroleum LLC, the sole refinery owner in Georgia's port city of Kulevi, has transitioned completely away from Russian crude, processing only non-Russian oil since August 24, according to Business Media Georgia. On August 28, the refinery received its first shipment of Libyan crude oil. The company signed a supply agreement with Libya on July 3, 2026, with the contract running through the end of 2027 and including an extension option.

Previously, Black Sea Petroleum announced the refinery would start processing Kazakh crude in early July and begin handling Libyan oil in August. The European Union added the Kulevi refinery to its sanctions list under the 21st sanctions package, giving the facility until January 25, 2027, to stop using Russian oil. Russia began supplying crude to Georgia's new Kulevi refinery in October 2025. The plant's initial processing capacity is 1.2 million metric tons per year.

Black Sea Petroleum announced in March 2026 a plan to entirely phase out Russian crude, switching to supplies from Turkmenistan and later Kazakhstan. The Kulevi refinery is Georgia's only oil refinery, with its first phase launching in late 2025 and a planned second phase expected to boost total processing capacity to 4.5 million metric tons of crude per year.

The project's total investment is estimated at $700 million. The refinery sits next to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan-owned oil terminal at the Kulevi port, which began operations in May 2008 and has a total capacity of 10 million metric tons of oil cargo annually.