Opinions & Interviews

Russia hopes for constructive settlement of oil quality problem

MINSK, 26 April (BelTA) – Russia is looking forward to a constructive settlement of the problem with poor quality of oil coming from Russia, Deputy Energy Minister of the Russian Federation Pavel Sorokin said at the talks of Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and Poland in Minsk, BelTA learned.

“We are long-standing partners and have had to deal with a lot of difficult moments over this time. I am sure that these are technical problems and that we will solve them today in a constructive manner,” he said.

Pavel Sorokin thanked the Belarusian side for the hospitality and constructive settlement of the problem. He stressed that all are consumers and users of the single system of trunk oil pipelines and that the safety of energy supply to a substantial part of Europe depends on it.

“I hope that the great work that was done to prepare this meeting on our part and on the part of our colleagues, comprehensive analysis of the situation and events, measures worked out and discussed will contribute to the prompt and efficient solution of the problem and enable us to resume normal operation of the whole system,” the deputy minister said.

BelTA reported earlier that the quality of Russian export oil variety Urals transported in transit via OAO Polotsktransneft Druzhba’s main oil pipeline worsened considerably last week. The poor-quality oil has already damaged expensive equipment at Mozyr Oil Refinery. Both Belarusian oil refineries – OAO Naftan and Mozyr Oil Refinery – have been forced to reduce their workload and are experiencing financial losses. On 24 April, Poland stopped oil transit via the Druzhba oil pipeline system for an indefinite period of time due to the refusal of Polish and German oil refineries to deal with contaminated Russian oil. On 25 April, Ukraine also suspended the transit of Russian oil through Druzhba pipeline.

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