Poland suspends Druzhba oil pumping Wed–Thu on contamination

WARSAW, Jun 20 (PRIME) -- Oil pumping via the Druzhba pipeline from Belarus to Poland was suspended from Wednesday afternoon till Thursday morning due to a short-term rise of chloride content, Poland’s operator PERN said in a report.

“PERN asked Gomeltransneft-Druzhba (the Belarusian operator) to explain the situation. The Belarusian pipeline operator emphasized that the incident was a result of a switch between successive infrastructure units,” PERN said.

The company also said that pumping resumed on Thursday after oil quality was proven to improve.

Russia started pumping oil contaminated with chlorides via the Druzhba pipeline in April. Poland and Ukraine stopped oil taking on April 24–25. Poland resumed pumping on June 10. Transneft is to compensate for the losses.

End