The Belarusian Gomeltransneft Druzhba pipeline operator estimates the volume of low-quality oil in the Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Polish parts of the Druzhba pipeline at about 5 million tonnes, the company's first deputy director general and chief engineer said on Tuesday
MINSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th April, 2019) The Belarusian Gomeltransneft Druzhba pipeline operator estimates the volume of low-quality oil in the Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Polish parts of the Druzhba pipeline at about 5 million tonnes, the company's first deputy director general and chief engineer said on Tuesday."According to a preliminary assessment, the volume of low-quality oil in Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and Polish pipelines amounts to some 5 million tonnes," Andrei Verigo told the Belta news agency.
He pointed out that the taken measures would give an opportunity to restore operation of only one out of two pipeline's strings, while the second string would be closed for an indefinite period of time, storing the low-quality oil.
Verigo stressed that it planned to reach the 60-65 percent level of nominal annual average, or 40 percent of the designed throughput capacity on May 10 or May 11.
"We want to start the system as soon as possible but one has to bear in mind that this launch is only the beginning. The system will operate with reduced functionality," he said.
The problem with the quality of oil coming from Russia to Belarus through Druzhba arose earlier in April. Russian state-owned transport monopoly Transneft later confirmed it had found high content of chlorides in the oil, pledging to take urgent measures to resolve the issue.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said on Thursday that those responsible for contaminated Russian oil getting into the Druzhba pipeline would be brought to justice.
