CEO says Russia’s Lukoil ready to mull refining dirty oil

ASTRAKHAN, Jul 23 (PRIME) -- Russian oil producer Lukoil is ready to consider refining oil with a high content of chlorides, CEO Vagit Alekperov told reporters on Tuesday.

“This is a question for (oil pipeline owner) Transneft, they ought to keep the quality of pumped oil, the rules of the All Union State Standard… if they suggest this (to refine the oil at the Russian plants), we are ready to consider it. Nizhny Novgorod(’s refinery) is meant to refine highly-sulfuric oil,” Alekperov said.

The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Europe across Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline appeared in April. Belarus began pumping contaminated oil back to Russia in late May through one of the pipeline’s threads.

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