Germany has rejected a statement that it plans to buy Russian oil early next year, saying it will instead import crude oil from Kazakhstan, Bloomberg reported.

Europe's largest economy had previously said it planned to stop importing Russian oil by the end of this year, but that was called into question when the chief executive of the Russian oil pipeline operator said it had received requests for Russian oil in the first quarter of 2023.

Germany's Leuna and Schwedt refineries have historically depended heavily on imports of Russian oil through the pipeline. Now flows through the Druzhba pipeline, Europe's largest oil pipeline, will come from Kazakhstan, although no agreement has yet been reached.

Pipeline flows of oil from Russia are exempt from the European Union's ban on most maritime imports, which took effect Dec. 5. Germany and Poland, which receive Russian oil through the northern section of the Druzhba branch, have pledged to abandon it by December.

They have announced that they will not buy oil from Russia from January 1, but we have received requests from Polish consumers: give us 3 million tons for next year and 360,000 tons for December, Transneft CEO Nikolai Tokarev said. Germany has already sent a request for the first quarter.

Tokarev said it would be difficult for German refineries to replace all Russian volumes with Kazakh oil, although it is technically possible to conduct so-called swap operations to partially replace Russian oil, a political decision.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi said last week that the Central Asian country could send two to five million tons of gas a year through the pipeline.