The transport corridors of the Druzhba pipeline to Ukraine and Poland, passing through Belarus, are again blocked. This time, the matter is no longer in the quality of raw materials – there are no flaws in hydrocarbons from the new supplies.
Buyers of Russian “black gold” from among the countries to which export has been suspended do not have enough tanks for pumping the previously supplied “dirty” oil located in the pipeline system. Belarusians promise to resume transit already on May 20. Meanwhile, this conflict is unlikely to be soon forgotten – Minsk will more than once try to blackmail Moscow, accusing our country of the instability of energy exports.
According to Belneftekhim, the transit of Russian oil to Ukrainian territory through the Republic of Belarus is unstable and suspended. The Belarusian concern explains that this decision was not due to the quality of the raw materials, as it was before, but is of a purely technical nature – in Ukraine there were no free tanks into which polluted hydrocarbons were pumped out of the Druzhba pipeline. For similar reasons, the supply of oil to Poland has been frozen.
“According to the new pumping schedule, its resumption is scheduled for the night of May 19-20,” the Belarusian company said in a statement. In Byelorussia itself, with the provision of “black gold”, everything is in order – the Mozyr Oil Refinery, despite the repair, is fully provided with refined Russian oil, and another refinery of the republic, Naftan, will be able to get enough raw materials in the near future.
Meanwhile, according to Sergey Pikin, Director of the Energy Development Fund, the consequences of the scandal surrounding Russian raw materials, the quality of which did not meet the necessary standards and led to the disruption of supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, one of the main transport arteries connecting Russia and Europe, will be be felt for a long time.
Now Minsk is counting the losses caused by the incident with damaged hydrocarbons. Different amounts are called up to $ 100 million. Vice Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak promised that Transneft will compensate the damage to everyone who will prove the real losses from entering a low-quality product into the Druzhba pipeline.
“The financial costs that Transneft will have to pay fines have yet to be assessed. It will take several months. At this time, Minsk will continue to play on the nerves of Moscow, repeatedly recalling the situation with contaminated raw materials. Russia, which is currently trying to strengthen its energy expansion in the countries of the Old World, this will clearly not be good, ”the expert notes.