PRESS: Transneft: Druzhba pipeline cleaning may take 6–8 months

MOSCOW, May 30 (PRIME) -- A total of 3 million tonnes of chloride-contaminated crude was sent to non-CIS states via the Druzhba pipeline and the port of Ust-Luga, cleaning of the system will take six to eight months, Vice President of Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft Sergei Andronov told Kommersant business daily in an interview released on Thursday.

“It will take six to eight months,” he said.

Belarus will return 1.328 million tonnes of dirty oil to Russia, where crude will be put into Transneft’s storage facilities, he added.

Around 690,500 tonnes of non-quality oil was delivered to Poland and Germany. The plan envisages no return of poor oil from the territory of Poland. Clean oil will arrive in the state on June 10, according to an approved roadmap.

Transneft and the Energy Ministry have discussed possible compensation to oil suppliers, Andronov also said.

The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Europe across Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline appeared in April. In Belarus, the pipeline splits into two strings, of which one goes to Poland and Germany, and the other to Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary. Good-quality oil deliveries resumed in early May, but there is still dirty oil in the facility.

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