Report: Minsk says Kiev stops Russian oil transit on overflowing

MINSK, Apr 26 (PRIME) – Ukrainå has suspended transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline on Thursday evening due to pipeline overflowing, Belarusian operator of pipeline Gomeltransneft Druzhba said, as cited by newswire Belta.

“Due to rejection on the acceptance point of Budkovice (Slovakia) and the absence of spare capacities on the oil acceptance point at Fenyeslitke (Hungary), Ukrtransnafta asked to suspend oil pumping via the Mozyr-Brody pipeline. The time of pumping resumption will be announced later,” the officials said.

Belarus’s Belneftekhim reduced exports of oil products from Belarus because of a rapid worsening of the quality of oil it receives from Russia on April 21. 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.

Earlier on Thursday, operator of Poland’s segment of the Druzhba oil pipeline PERN notified Belarus that it had suspended Russian oil transit across the pipeline due to its low quality.

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