OREANDA-NEWS. Polish refiner PKN Orlen has extended into 2017 a deal to buy 200,000t, or 1.5mn bl, of Saudi crude each month.

The extension, until December 2017, follows a term contract signed with state-owned Saudi Aramco in May that envisaged supplies until the the end of 2016 with an option to extend.

PKN can direct Saudi crudes to its refineries in Poland, Lithuania and the Czech Republic, although so far the crude was mainly supplied to the company's largest refinery, the 327,000 b/d Plock in central Poland.

PKN said today that Saudi crude established itself as "part of primary feedstock" for its refineries, and said the contract helped it to benefit from diversifying crude supplies beyond its key Urals crude.