FRANKFURT: Shareholders of two German refineries are arranging crude tanker shipments via the Baltic Sea in response to the halt of import flows on the Russian Druzhba pipeline, a spokesman for industry group MWV said on Thursday.

He said that one tanker had been discharged in the Polish port of Gdansk to ship oil to the Leuna refinery  while the German port of Rostock was preparing to receive a shipment to feed to the nearby Schwedt refinery.

Both refineries had sufficient on-site inventories to keep operating for the time being, he said.

He declined to give further details, saying it is policy in the Mineraloelwirtschaftsverband to leave further internal communications up to member firms.