Belarus: Poland stops acceptance of Russian oil due to low quality

MINSK, Apr 25 (PRIME) -- Operator of Poland’s segment of the Druzhba oil pipeline PERN has notified Belarus that it suspended Russian oil transit across the pipeline due to its low quality, Chief Engineer of Belarus’ Gomeltransneft Druzhba Andrei Verigo said on Thursday.

“We have received a letter from PERN that refineries in Poland and Germany cannot accept and refine oil with such (quality) indicators as coming to the Adamovo acceptance point. They stopped taking oil at 10:00 p.m., Warsaw time, I mean, stopped traffic to Poland in the Adamovo point indefinitely,” Verigo said.

PERN sent a letter to Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, asking it to send non-contaminated oil.

Spokeswoman for Belarusian state oil product maker Belneftekhim Marina Kostyuchenko told newswire Belta that Russia is procrastinating with measures to stop transits of poor quality oil across Belarus.

“Belneftekhim has been warning about low-quality oil coming from Russia for a week, has been patiently negotiating with Transneft and has been insisting on the fastest solution of oil supplies that would meet the standards to Belarusian refineries and the pipeline system. But the Russian side is procrastinating with prompt measures in spite of promising to solve the issue in two–three days,” she said.

According to a report of Belarus 1 channel, Minsk can also stop to accept Russian oil if the quality does not improve.

Poland’s fuel producer ORLEN said that it sees no threat of limits to its production due to the Druzhba pipeline suspension.

Gomeltransneft Druzhba said that a batch of low-quality oil from Russia, which was earlier accepted, will arrive to Hungary and Slovakia in four to five days. Oil transit towards Ukraine continues and amounts to about 40,000 tonnes a day.

Belneftekhim Deputy CEO Vladimir Sizov said on April 21 that the company had temporarily reduced exports of oil products from Belarus because of a rapid worsening of the quality of oil it receives from Russia. On Monday, the Mozyr oil refinery in Belarus blamed poor-quality Russian oil for a failure of its equipment. Belarus asked to raise exports of non-contaminated oil to the Naftan refinery through the northern thread of the Druzhba pipe to compensate for poor oil.

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