According to the Gomeltransneft Druzhba dispatching service, the pumping of clean Russian oil from Russia's Unecha to the Belarusian-Russian border and Mozyr started at 17.40 (local time) on 29 April. As of 9.00 on 30 April, clean oil reached the 30th kilometer from Unecha.
The low-quality oil in the amount of 50,000 tonnes will be then taken out from the Russian section into the Unecha tank farm. Over 120,000 tonnes of polluted oil will be taken out from the Belarusian section to the Mozyr tank farm.
“Taking into account the speed and schedule of oil movement, as well as the distance (106km from Unecha to the border), clean Russian oil will reach Belarus at 23.00 on 2 May at the earliest. The Mozyr Oil Refinery will receive clean oil no earlier than on 4 May,” the press service said.
According to Belneftekhim, the undertaken measures will allow resuming the operation of only one line of the Druzhba pipeline. “Full recovery will require several months of hard work,” the company said.
“The negotiations to resolve the situation around the deliveries of poor-quality oil from Russia continue. On 30 April, representatives of Belneftekhim and Russian oil and oil transport companies are meeting again at the Russian Ministry of Energy,” the company added.
On 19 April, Belneftekhim mentioned a sharp decrease in the quality of the Russian oil mixture Urals transported in transit via OAO Gomeltransneft Druzhba's main oil pipeline. The Druzhba pipeline system secures oil deliveries to the Belarusian oil refineries and oil transit via Belarus to Europe in two directions: via Poland and Ukraine. Poland and Ukraine have suspended oil transit. On 26 April, Minsk hosted the talks with the participation of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Poland with a view to regulating the situation with poor-quality Russian oil. On 29 April, the Belneftekhim continued talks at the Russian Ministry of Energy in Moscow.
Written by belta.by
