Russia to calculate Druzhba compensation to Belarus after ‘19

MOSCOW, Jun 21 (PRIME) -- Russia presumes that compensation to Belarus for contaminated oil in the Druzhba pipeline will be assessed after 2019, Sergei Prikhodko, first deputy head of the Russian government administration, told reporters on Friday.

“We assume that the real amount of compensation will be defined after 2019, taking into account the real amount of oil supply to Belarus and its transit across the Belarusian territory,” Prikhodko said.

He said that supply of high-quality oil to Belarusian refinery Naftan will resume on July 4. “A roadmap of measures to squeeze the contaminated oil out of the trunk pipelines and the reservoir capacities was elaborated. Oil traffic towards Poland and Germany by two out of three lines of Druzhba has resumed. We plan to restart full-scale oil transportation to these destinations from July 1, 2019. Resumption of supply of quality oil to Naftan will take place from July 4.”

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.

The prime ministers of Russia and Belarus will meet on Friday.

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