Rosneft says only German, Samara refineries undamaged by bad oil

MOSCOW, Jul 4 (PRIME) – Only the refinery of Russian oil major Rosneft in the German city of Schwedt and the Kuibyshev refinery were not damaged by the contaminated oil that flew through the Druzhba export pipeline, and did not suspend their operations, Rosneft said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Europe across Belarus via the pipeline appeared in April. The crude was contaminated with chlorides. In Belarus, the Druzhba pipeline splits into two strings, one of which stretches to Poland and Germany, and the other to Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary.

“Four of the six refineries that received poor-quality oil contaminated with chloroorganic compounds suffered serious losses and had to suspend operations to fix their equipment. Only the Kuibyshev refinery and the Schwedt refinery continued operations and provision of high-quality fuel to the market due to intelligent and timely actions in anti-corrosion protection of equipment,” Rosneft’s statement read.

Nevertheless, the Schwedt refinery and German operator of the Druzhba pipeline – Mineralolverbundleitung GmbH (MVL) – received some contaminated oil to free in the pipeline from the bad oil and ensure the possibility of pumping good crude, the company said.

“In accordance with a ruling of the country’s government on toughening of control over  the quality of crude, we’ve decided to attract professional surveyor companies to all stages of crude transportation. The Russian and European consumers should be sure that the crude they receive completely meets the quality standards of the oil that Rosneft pumped into the system,” the company said. 

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