Belneftekhim sees clean Russian oil at Mozyr refinery on Sat

MINSK, Apr 30 (PRIME) -- Clean Russian oil is expected to arrive at Belarus’ Mozyr refinery via the Druzhba pipeline no earlier than on Saturday, a spokesperson for state holding Belneftekhim told PRIME on Tuesday.

“According to information of dispatching service of Gomeltransneft Druzhba, on April 29… at 5:40 p.m., pumping of oil complying with standard parameters began from Russia’s Unecha linear production dispatch station towards the Belarusian–Russian border and the Mozyr linear production dispatching station. As of 9:00 a.m. on April 30 (Tuesday), quality oil remained on the 30th kilometer from Unecha,” the spokesperson said.

In accordance with the speed and schedule of oil movement and taking into account the distance, oil is expected to arrive at the territory of Belarus no earlier than at 11:00 p.m. on Thursday and will thus arrive at the Mozyr station no earlier than on Saturday, he said.

A full recovery of operations of the Druzhba pipeline will take several months, the spokesperson also said.

A spokesperson for the Russian Energy Ministry said late Monday that clean Russian oil is expected to arrive at the Mozyr refinery approximately on Thursday–Friday.

The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline appeared last week. As oil contaminated with chlorides moved through the pipes, Poland stopped receiving oil from Druzhba on April 24, and Ukraine on April 25. The operators of the Russian, Belarusian, Polish and Ukrainian sections of Druzhba met in the Belarusian capital of Minsk on April 26 to discuss the mechanism to clean the pipeline system from the contaminated oil.

End